THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 



THE BOOK OF 

DANIEL DREW 



A Glimpse of the Fisk-Gould-Tweed 
Regime from the Inside 



By 
BOUCK WHITE 




New York 

Doubleday, Page & Company 

1910 



.377 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, rs-CLUDrSG THAT OF TRANSLATION 
INTO FOREIGN" LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANT) INA\'IAN 



COPYRIGHT, 19IO, BY D0U3LEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 
PUBLISHED APRIL, IQIO 



To Replace lost copy 
APR 2 6 1943 



EDITOR'S NOTE 

A caution to the reader is necessary. From the 
fact that these papers are put in the first person 
throughout, one unwarned would get the impression 
that they were left by Mr. Drew in finished form, 
and that my task as editor had been merely to 
dig up from the rubbish of some attic a bundle of 
manuscript undiscovered these thirty years since his 
death, and hand it over to the printer. 

This view would be the more natural, because of 
the following article (I quote it in part), which 
appeared in the New York Tribune, February 8, 1905 : 

*' A diary of Daniel Drew, containing pen pic- 
tures of former Wall Street celebrities and 
accounts of old-time financial transactions, 
has been discovered. It came to New York the 
other day in an old trunk which was shipped 
down from Putnam County to a grandniece 
of the financier from the Drew estate in 
Carmel. ^ esterday, in going through her 
consignment, she came upon the diary. *Jim' 
Fisk is mentioned often in its pages, and also 
Cornelius Vanderbilt. Events ot * Black 
Friday' are touched on." 

The article goes on to state that the diary would be 
prepared for publication. 

From this one might infer that the papers 
which follow were received from the pen o{ Mr. 
Drew in the connected form in which thev here are 



vi THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

given. Which impression would be quite erroneous. 
As a matter of fact the material out of which this 
series of papers has been made, were in the most 
jumbled and helter-skelter form imaginable. Even 
where I have had the clear words of Mr. Drew to 
guide me, I have had to "English" it for the easy 
comprehension of the reader. For, as the pages 
themselves state, schools were not plentiful in our 
rural districts a hundred years ago; and an educa- 
tion of the book kind was not only hard to get, but 
was also little valued in comparison with practical 
skill — the ability to bring things to pass. In alter- 
ing his grammar and spelling, therefore, so as to 
make for easy reading, much of the tang and indi- 
viduality which, to those who knew him, Daniel 
Drew possessed to an uncommon degree, has 
undoubtedly been sacrificed. In order to whip the 
life story here recorded into something approaching 
coherence and clearness, I have had to shape the 
thing from the start. 

In fact, my share in the preparation of this vol- 
ume has had to be so large, even writing with my 
own hand parts which were needed in order to sup- 
ply the connection — putting these also, as in the case 
of historical drama, in the first person — that I had 
doubts as to whether plain biography might not have 
been the better form, as being less liable to miscon- 
struction. But I decided to let it go forth in the 
first person throughout, provided it could be accom- 



EDITOR'S NOTE vii 

panied by a foreword of explanation. In historical 
drama, the poetic form is sufficient notice to the 
reader that the speeches are not stenographic re- 
ports, though the situations and spirit of the whole 
are true to history. In the present case I have 
sought to convey the same notification by means of 
this introduction. That errors have crept into a 
work pieced as this has been out of scraps and frag- 
ments, is to be expected. But I venture to state 
that these will be found to concern matters of unes- 
sential detail alone. In the drift and temper of the 
work as a whole, I pledged myself to absolute adher- 
ence to the originals. 

The events narrated constitute a stirring and im- 
portant era in our nation's history. The develop- 
ment of navigation on the Hudson River, brought 
recently to the front by the tri-centennial celebration; 
the Erie Railroad and its vicissitudes; early days in 
Wall Street; the religious spirit of a former age, a 
spirit which to-day in all of the churches is changing 
rapidly for the better; the Tweed RinginNew York 
City — these and other events touched on in the 
papers which here follow, are not without historical 
value. Some of the facts and viewpoints here given 
have not, to my knowledge, found their way else- 
where into print. 

BoucK White. 

Head Resident's Study, 

Trinity Neighborhood House 
New York City. 



CONTENTS 



Page 



I. Jay Gould's "History" 3 

II. A Militiaman in the War of 18 12 7 

III. Early Circus Days . 21 

IV. Life as a Drover 28 

V. A Backslider 36 

VI. Origin of the Vv^all Street Term, "Watered 

Stock" 42 

VII. Astor Seeks an Interview 55 

VIII. Life at the "Bulls Head" Tavern ..... 61 

IX. Pioneer Cattle Driving 76 

X. Farewell to a Drover's Life 87 

XL Early Steamboat Days on the Hudson ... 92 

XII. Commodore Vanderbilt Loses a Steamboat 

Race 108 

XIIL Wall Street 113 

XIV. The Church on Mulberry Street 123 

XV. The Erie Railroad 129 

XVI. Gets Control of the Erie 139 

XVIL Wall Street in the Civil War ...... 155 

XVIII. A Visit from Boss Tweed 163 

XIX. The Railroad to Harlem 170 

XX. Building of Churches. "California" Parker . 182 

ix 



X CONTENTS 



PAGE 



XXI. Meets '7im" Fisk 198 

XXII. War with Vanderbilt 207 

XXIII. The Printing Press 219 

XXIV. Escape to Jersey City 233 

XXV. "Fort" Taylor 242 

XXVI. End of the War and Treaty of Peace . . . 257 

XXVII. Drew Theological Seminary 282 

XXVIII. A Red Letter Day 291 

XXIX. A Wreck on the Erie 302 

XXX. Prosperity 309 

XXXI. Trade Secrets 316 

XXXII. The Lock Up of Greenbacks 324 

XXXIII. Light Women 333 

XXXIV. Golden Wedding 347 

XXXV. Inside History 354 

XXXVI. A Prayer That Went Wrong 362 

XXXVII. Shooting of Fisk by Ed. Stokes 380 

XXXVIII. Outwitted by Gould 391 

XXXIX. Panic of *73 403 

XL, The End 416 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 



The Book of Daniel Drew 

I 

MEMORIES — that's what this thing is going 
to be. What I remember Til put down. 
What I don't remember I won't put down. 
Or else I'll put it down cautious-like, so you'll know 
it isn't real gospel but only a sort of think-so. For 
after going on eighty years, a fellow gets a little mite 
rusty as to some of the goods packed away in his 
upper story. Whenever I talked with people I 
didn't jot it down word for word. Therefore it's 
only the gist of it that you get here in these papers. 
Anyhow I never was much at writer-work. Jay 
was the boy for that. I mean Jason Gould. (He 
got to calling himself ** Jay," and so the rest of us 
called him by that name, too.) In our doings — I 
mean, the doings of Jim Fisk, Jay Gould and me, 
for we were in a partnership together a long time — 
Jay would do most of the writer-work. "Jay, 
you're the ink slinger," Jimmy would say to him, 
and would pull him up to the table and slap a pen 
in his hand. He would do it so rough that Jay, 
who is a slip of a man, would wince. But Jimmy 

3 



4 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

had so hearty a way of slapping you on your shoulder 
with his big paws, that nobody could stay mad at 
him for very long together. 

As I started to say, Jay had a high and noble way 
of stringing words together — a knack which I 
never could get. See that opening of his " History 
of Delaware County," which he wrote back in '55, 
before he came to New York to make money. It's 
worth reading over and over, if for nothing more 
than its moral teachings: 

"History, with the more and more extensive 
meaning acquired by the advancement of civilization, 
by the diffusion of education, and by the elevation 
of the standard of human liberty, has expanded into 
a grand and beautiful science. It treats of man in all 
his social relations, whether civil, religious, or literary, 
in which he has intercourse with his fellows. The 
study of history, to a free government like the one 
in which we live, is an indispensable requisite to the 
improvement and elevation of the human race. It 
leads us back through the ages that have succeeded 
each other in time past; it exhibits the conditions 
of the human race at each respective period, and by 
following down its pages from the vast empires and 
mighty cities now ingulfed in oblivion but which the 
faithful historian presents in a living light before us, 
we are enabled profitably to compare and form a more 
correct appreciation of our own relative position. 

"It is certain that the more enlightened and free 
a people become the more the government devolves 
upon themselves; and hence the necessity of a care- 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 5 

ful study of history, which, by showing the height 
to which man as an intellectual being is capable 
of elevating himself in the scale of usefulness and 
moral worth, teaches that the virtues of a good man 
are held In sacred emulation by his countrymen for 
ages succeeding, long after the scythe of time has 
gathered the earthly remains of the actor to the 
silent grave. Such thoughts, or rather such reflec- 
tions as these, inspire within the human bosom an 
ardent desire to attain that which is good and shun 
that which Is evil, an honest and laudable ambition 
to become both great and good; or, as another has 
beautifully written: 'Great only as we are good/ " 

You'll have to foot it many a mile to find writing 
to equal that. Fine, noble words seemed to come to 
Jay natural-like. If I could write in that fashion 
rd be stuck up. But Jay wasn't; in fact, he didn't 
use to like it when I would remind him of this 
opening chapter of his "History of Delaware 
County." 

"Twaddle!" he'd say; "It's nothing but a lot of 
gush, written when I was a youth out there back of 
the CatsklU Mountains." Jay always was modest. 
He didn't like to be pushed to the front. Jimmy 
was the boy — I mean Jim FIsk — to occupy the 
front pew. He never minded it a bit; in fact, 
would rather sit there than anywhere else in meeting 
— that Is, so to speak; because Jimmy didn't go to 
meeting really. 

Well, as I started to say, I never was much on the 



6 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

writer-business. So I don't want any one to sup- 
pose that I'm trying here to write history, Hke what 
Jay wrote. I haven't got big enough words for 
that. In these diary papers, I just set it down in 
the first words that come to me. And I'm not 
scared to put the whole story in, either. "What's 
the use of digging up dead dogs ?" some of the boys 
might say. But I'm not scared. I have been busy 
all my days, and now that I'm so old that they won't 
let me speckilate in stocks as I used to, I've got to 
keep busy. So I'm going to write out some things. 
Goodness knows, nobody need be scared at it. Do 
the best I can, these papers won't stay in order; 
they're a mixed-up mess of stuff. The pages in the 
forepart of a chapter get lost somewheres in the desk 
before I get to the finish. So that, if I can't make 
head nor tail to the thing three months after I've 
written it, who else can ^ Then, too, people have 
always said, "Nobody on earth can read Uncle Dan 
Drew's quail tracks." So, what is there to be scared 
oH Besides, even if the people should get the story, 
what's the harm ? The boys who would be mad 
at me for ripping up old scores, as they'd call it, are 
too thin-skinned. They are sensitive to the speech of 
people. But Tm not sensitive. I don't care a hill of 
beans for the speech of people. Never did. If people 
want to know about some of the things that have 
happened in my life-time, they are welcome. I shan't 
make any bones of letting them know the whole story. 



II 



JAY wrote his history about Delaware County 
in York State. My story — the first part — will 
have to be about Putnam County, on the 
other side of the Hudson. For I was born there — 
in 1797. It was in Carmel, on a farm above the 
Lake, on the "Pond Hill Road," alongside of 
Whangtown Brook. Follow up that brook until 
you come to a hill on the left as steep as a meeting- 
house roof. Climb to the top. And there, just at 
the fork of the road where it turns to go to Farmer's 
Mills, is where the house stood. There were locust 
trees in the front yard, and a well of cool water 
alongside the house, in the back yard. My father's 
name was Gilbert Drew. He was of English 
extraction. My mother was a Catherine Muckel- 
worth, of Scotch blood, as you could guess by the 
name. She was a master-hand in sickness, and 
kept in the house a store of roots and herbs. There 
was boneset and pennyroyal, smartweed, catnip, 
skunk cabbage, sarsaparilla, wild turnip, and such 
like. In those days it was a good thing to have a 
parent that knew something about medicine. 
Because the saddle-bag doctor was hard to locate 

7 



8 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

just when you wanted him. He wasn't always 
very knowing either. "Old Bleed'em, Puke'em, 
and Purge'em," was what we used to call him — 
"Old BUsters" was another name. 

I didn't get much schooling — somehow never 
took to it. In fact there wasn't much book-learning 
to take to in those days. Carmel then wasn't built 
up around where the village now stands. What 
there was of the village nestled around Old Gilead 
Meeting-house, at the other end of the Lake from 
us. Old Gilead was near Mt. Pisgah, and a good 
two miles from my home. It was a different kind 
of a place from Brimstone Hollow, a mile or two 
beyond. Old Gilead used to be known only as 
"Gregory's Parish," until he preached — Parson 
Nathan Gregory, I mean — that wonderful sermon 
of his from the text, "Is there no balm in Gilead .?'* 
whereby the entire meeting was so set on fire 
with godliness that they named the church 
"Gilead Meeting-house" from that day. Carmel 
was settled by people from Barnstable County^ 
on Cape Cod, and had lots of religion even in its 
earliest days. 

Well, as I started to say, in my day the preacher 
used to have both parishes, Gilead and another, 
called Red Mills, a few miles away. He would 
take turns, living for a spell at one place and then 
for a spell at the other. During his stays at Gilead i 
he kept a school in his house. So that I got a little 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 9 

education. But it was only in snatches, so to speak. 
When you've got to walk three miles for it, the 
amount of book-learning you're going to bring back 
with you isn't going to be very hefty. Of course, 
there were the spelling-bees. But I had never got 
much beyond the "b-a, baker," in school; and so 
I always got spelled down the very first time round. 
But I never minded that very much. I never did 
care two pins what people thought of me. I'd take 
my place in any spell-down, no matter how many 
people were looking on. 

Then, too, even when there was a parson-teacher 
at Gilead, there was no end to the things that used 
to pop up and keep me from school. Whangtown 
Brook used to have some of the biggest trout you 
ever saw. And when a boy brings home a good 
string of fish for the table, his ma isn't going to scold 
him much for playing hookey from school. And 
I was needed a good deal around the farm. Not 
that we were poor. For those days we were com- 
fortably well off — that is, compared to the rest of 
the people. We had a farm of nigh on to a hundred 
acres, and that was what lots of people didn't have. 
In those days nobody up in our part of the state had 
any great store of this world's goods. For this was, 
as everybody knows, just after the Revolutionary 
War. In the war, our part of York State was what 
was known as the Debated Country. The Red Coats 
were stationed down in New York City, the patriot 



lo THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

troops up in the neighbourhood of Albany. This 
left Putnam and Westchester Counties between the 
two, like a grain of wheat between the upper and 
nether mill-stones, as Scripture says. The region 
was well nigh ground to pieces. First the Red 
Coats would overrun the county. Then the Patriots 
would take a turn at it. Until, by the time they 
both got through, the farms looked about as hand- 
some as a skinned rabbit. 

Sugar was very high. We used maple sugar a 
good deal. Father also would drive over to Fishkill 
on the Hudson, and get of the store-keeper a molasses 
barrel after the molasses had been drawn out. In the 
bottom of an empty molasses barrel is a whole lot 
of caked molasses that makes as fine sugar as a man 
ever put in his mouth. But even with these shifts, 
sugar and sweetening were scarce things. Some- 
times, when we were to have company and sweeten- 
ing was scarce, mother in making a pie would 
sweeten only one end of it. She would place it on 
the table in such a way that the company would 
get the sweet end; and we boys, Tom and I (Tom 
was my brother, a little older than rne), would have 
to steer for the sour end. Molasses was good for 
medicine also. Because the itch was almost every- 
where in those days. It was well nigh the most 
bothersome complaint we had. Lice are not so 
serious. After you get used to them they don't 
bother you much. But the itch is a pestersome 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW ii 

thing. Unless you keep it down with a powerful 
hand it will break out all over you. And molasses- 
and-sulphur was a sovereign remedy. 

Tom and I had to work hard, often during school 
term. Father was old, mother being his second 
wife. And our farm, besides, was almighty rough 
and hilly. Some parts of it were as steep as the 
shingles on a house. Then there were the stones 
and rocks to clear away. How sick I got of prying 
those rocks out of the fields, with an old axle for a 
crowbar, and stone-boating them over to the boun- 
daries to make fences of. 

The woods were so plentiful that the farm was 
not of much use except for stock-raising. And 
stock-raising means work pretty nigh all the time. 
Because there were always poor spots in the fences. 
And, trust me, there is no critter like a heifer or a 
bull calf for finding weak spots in a fence, par- 
ticularly if it's a line fence. And when your cattle 
get over into the other fellow's field, you have to 
get after them mighty quick. Also our pasture lots 
were for the most part woods. We had ear- 
marks in those days by which we could tell our cattle 
if they got mixed up with others. For example, the 
left ear would be notched on the top with the right 
ear cropped off square and a hole in the middle. 
So that if we found a critter with a notch in the right 
ear instead of the left, we knew he belonged to some- 
body else. When you have to look through the 



12 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

woods for your milch cows, to bring them home at 
night for milking, with nothing to go by but the sound 
of the bell dingling from the cow's neck, and some- 
times not even that, they would be so far off; why, it 
means that you've got work on your hands. When 
there was nothing out in the fields to do, the chores 
had to be looked after. And then, just like as not, 
mother would say, "Dan, I need a new broom." 
That would mean that I'd have to look up a straight 
birch sapling from the woods, and with a sharp 
jackknife cut one end of it into splints and bind them 
around, so as to make a new broom. We had to 
cart our farm truck, or young calves, eighteen miles 
across country to Peekskill-on-the-Hudson. From 
there a sloop ran to New York, for carrying pas- 
sengers and freight. Later on, a line of market 
wagons went through Carmel to Peekskill twice a 
week, and gathered up the produce of the farms. 
But in the early days, each farmer had to do his own 
marketing. 

So I reached the age of fifteen without much 
book-learning. Then came the War of i8 12. And 
the school-teacher wasn't heard of any more. The 
farms, as I said, had been left so spoiled by the 
Revolutionary War as hardly to make grazing for 
a goose. And now, just when the farmers were 
getting on their feet again, along comes the War of 
18 12 and knocks things gaily west once more. We 
knew in Putnam County that a war was on, even 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 13 

though there wasn't any fighting in our section. 
Because we used to get news regular, although it 
would be sometimes a little late in coming. There 
was the Red Bird line of stages from Albany to 
New York. They changed horses at Luddington's 
Tavern, in Carmel — these stages ran only in 
winter, because in summer travel from New 
York to Albany was by sloop. In the summer- 
time, also, when the boats were sailing on the river, 
there was another ^ine of stages, running from 
Carmel to Peekskill, by the turnpike which went 
just south of the Fishkill Mountains across Peeks- 
kill hollow. We got our news from the stage-driver, 
as he drove up to Carmel in the great stage that was 
& painted bright red, and with the bells jingling on 
the four horses. These stages would come once a 
day on their way through Somers, to Carmel, to 
Luddingtonville, and so on up north. (It took 
four days for the stage to make the trip from New 
York to Stockbridge, Mass., and Bennington, Vt., 
through Dingle Ridge.) There were also post- 
riders, who came into the town every Saturday 
afternoon on horseback with newspapers from Hart- 
ford and Poughkeepsie. 

Then, too, we used to learn the news in a general 
way when the cobbler came to the house once a year 
to make up the year's supply of boots and shoes for 
the household. "Whipping the cat" used to be 
what we called his visit — I guess likely from his 



I 



14 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

always driving the cat away from his work bench, 
for she seemed possessed to hang around and get his 
waxed ends jummixed up. This visit of the cobbler 
was quite an event each year. Father would pre- 
pare for it by swapping a pair of cattle or a load of 
potatoes down at Foster's tan-yard, a mile the other 
side of Luddington's Tavern, for a few sides of 
leather. Then the cobbler would come for a week 
or so and make the leather up into foot-wear. So 
when the news he brought was about a war, and 
about the goings-on in the great world outside, a 
boy of fifteen was going to listen with both ears. 
When the cobbler came it was the boy's work to whit- 
tle out the pegs for him. A boy would really get 
more news from the cobbler than any other member 
of the family, since he would be nearer to him. 

In these ways, little by little, we learned about 
the victory of Commodore Perry on Lake Erie, and 
the big doings of our navy out on the high seas. 
But it seems that these victories on water hadn't 
done much good; because the military campaign 
along the entire northern frontier of our country 
was going against us. The English were pushing 
in on every side. It looked as though New York 
might be taken. The President had issued a draft 
for troops to defend the country. And men were 
paying as high as a hundred dollars for a substitute. 
That hundred dollars looked big to me. It seemed 
an easy way to earn a large lump of money. Times 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 15 

were getting harder and harder out on our hillside 
farm; for banks all over the country were stopping 
specie payment, and silver was getting as scarce as 
hens' teeth. So when, on top of it all, my father 
died, I decided that the time had come. I made up 
my mind to leave the farm in charge of my brother 
Tom (he being the oldest, he was by rights the 
one to stay home and take care of things), and go 
out and see the world, and make money as a sub- 
stitute in the army. First along mother didn't 
exactly take to the idea. But I showed her I was 
sure to make big money. I was to get one hundred 
dollars out of hand; and as my board in the army 
wouldn't cost me anything, the money would be 
clear gain. It was a powerful argument, because 
she was thrifty. A hundred dollars all in a lump 
looked pretty nigh as big to her as it did to me. 
But just then she happened to think of another 
thing. For mother was old-fashioned. 

"See here, Danny," said she; "you're under age, 
and to get into the service you'd have to tell a lie. 
And besides, you might get killed; and then where 
would the hundred dollars be.?" I answered that I 
would agree to leave the hundred dollars with her to 
keep for me, before I started. As to my being under 
age, I told her not to bother herself about that point. 
I would take care of that. Women, anyhow, are apt 
to be squeamish about business transactions. Men 
are more sensible — they know that if a cat would 



i6 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

eat fish she must be wiUing to wet her feet. And I 
told mother that I would take care of the age limit. 
I calculated that, for a fellow as tall for his years as 
I was, I could fix my age all right. 

And I did. The Government was hard pressed 
for men. So the recruiting sergeant didn't narrow 
me down very close when I told him I was of age. I 
got my hundred dollars, handed it over to mother to 
keep for me, and in full regimentals of the State 
Militia, with knapsack on back and musket over 
my shoulder, I set out for Peekskill. There I 
found a sloop going to New York, and got aboard. 
These sloops were big affairs. They carried people, 
live stock and freight, all huddled together. When 
the wind and tide were contrary, or when the wind 
died down altogether, they anchored, and you would 
be out all night just in making the trip to New York. 
In that case you'd have to sleep the best way you 
could. But you could find a good berth on the hay 
or straw which usually formed a part of the boat's 
cargo. As long as it didn't rain, you could pass a 
night very comfortable. 

It was a great event in my life, this trip to New 
York. When finally we came to where the Harlem 
River empties out into the North River, the man at 
the helm pointed it out to the passengers, and said, 
"there was the island, and the city was at the lower 
end of it." Another hour of sailing brought us to 
where the city lay. We landed at a wharf alongside 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 17 

where the Washington Market now stands. (The 
shore at that point has been filled in a good deal 
since that day. Back in those days, boats of light 
draft could sail right in and land pretty near to the 
market.) They marched me off along with the rest, 
and took me across the North River to Fort Gaines- 
vort, opposite New York City. It was near Paulus 
Hook (which is now Jersey City). There my com- 
pany was stationed, I suppose to protect New York. 

And now my good luck in enlisting showed itself. 
For my company didn't have to do a smitch of 
fighting. I just lived there in the camp, without it 
costing me a cent for food or lodging; and at the 
end of three months, on a February's day, a British 
sloop-of-war from Europe sailed into New York 
Harbour with the news that our Peace Commis- 
sioners at Ghent had succeeded in making a treaty. 
The war was over. 

It was mighty good news for everybody. That 
winter had been one of the hardest New York City 
had ever seen. The weather was so severe, the 
North River froze over to Paulus Hook. Hickory 
wood sold in New York that winter for $20 a cord, 
and hogs fetched ^11 a hundred. (That price for 
butcher's meat set me thinking, as w^U be seen a 
little later.) Milk was a shilhng a quart. And 
the President, when the news came, had been just 
on the point of calHng for 75,000 more militia. I 
was as glad as the rest. Perhaps a httle more so. 



i8 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

I never was cut out to be a soldier. Not that I 
worried much about the hardships of life in camp. 
When a fellow has been reared on a hill-side farm, 
his cradle a sap-trough, and has been brought up to 
eat from wooden plates, he's used to pot-luck, and 
life in an army camp doesn't seem hard at all. 
Still I was glad when the news came of peace. In 
a battle there's always a danger from bullets and 
bayonets, and from cannon balls. I'm by nature 
a peaceable man. And I had cleaned up a hundred 
dollars in the space of three months. It was a good 
stroke of business. 

I set out for home as soon as I was mustered out. 
And for a few days I was glad to be back. But I 
soon saw that I wasn't intended for a humdrum 
life. I had had a smack of big things, and now the 
everlasting chores on the farm didn't gee with my 
tastes. My brother Tom was there to take care of 
those things. (He said, with something pretty 
near to cuss words, when I spoke to him on the sub- 
ject, that since I was such a gadabout, somebody 
had to buckle down and run the farm, in order to 
take care of mother.) 

So I made my plans. Going to mother, I said, 
"Mother, I want my substitute money. I'm going 
into business." 

"Goodness sakes!" she replied; "what is it this 
time .'* Some new fangle, I'll bet, to waste your 
money on," 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 19 

"No new fangle at all/' said I; "rm going to 
be a drover. I'm going to buy up cattle for the 
city market. And I need the hundred dollars to 
start me off. Vm young. But that's the time to 
start in. Early sow, early mow." 

"But are you sure, Danny," said she (for the 
idea began to take hold of her); "are you sure that 
you won't lose your money .?" I told her I'd planned 
the thing all out; it was going to be a money-maker. 
She handed the hundred dollars over to me, and I 
became a drover. 

Not exactly a drover, either, in the full sense of 
the word. I became a buyer of bob calves. The 
laws against bob-veal weren't very strict in those 
days — that is, they weren't enforced. If you 
could get anybody to buy the stuff, the law didn't 
poke its nose in and stop you. And so, I would go 
around among the farmers and buy a calf very soon 
after it had been dropped. I had my troubles. 
Bob-calves are shaky on their legs. Then, too, 
there's its mother to bother you. I found it easier 
to get around the law objection against bob-veal 
than the mother objection — so to speak — that 
pair of wicked horns, when you go to take the calf 
away from its dam! But the right kind of handling 
would do it. And then, by hurrying the calf to 
market, I would get the critter off my hands before 
it sickened and died. I dare say that the flesh now 
and then was pretty soft for real good eating. Peo- 



20 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

pie used to say, "Veal bought from that young Dan 
Drew can be sucked through a quill/' But then, 
folks who said these things were jealous of me, 
because I worked hard and managed to get along. 

Besides, with me it was a case of calves or nothing. 
Because I didn't have the money to go into the 
grown-up cattle business. You can buy calves on a 
small capital — yes, sometimes without capital at 
all. Because, a farmer who has a bull calf on his 
hands and doesn't want to feed it, will often let you 
have it on credit. Sometimes the farmer thinks 
that a calf is so misshapen and puny that it is going 
to die; and then he will be glad to get it off of his 
hands on any terms. But when it comes to parting 
with his grown-up critters, a farmer is almighty 
particular about whom he trusts. 



Ill 



THESE years of mine as a calf-drover were 
broken in upon a little later. I went into 
the circus business. 

Some time after the War of 1812, the travelling 
circus came into fashion. The people in those days 
lived in little settlements. They were lonely. They 
didn't have much amusement. So, when times 
became settled once more and the farmers had 
recovered from the war, the Rolling Show came in 
and did lots of business. Only we didn't call it a 
show in those days, nor a circus — no siree! The 
people wouldn't have come near us. Because the 
preachers thundered against circuses and all such 
worldliness. To get the trade of the church people, 
we called it a "Menagerie" and "The Great Moral 
and Educational Exhibition." 

Putnam and Westchester counties were head- 
quarters for the circus business in early days, par- 
ticularly Star's Ridge, in the town of South-east, and 
Purdy's Station, just below Croton Falls. I guess 
the reason for this was, because those two counties 
are just north of New York City. Being a beautiful 
farming region, with Bridgeport, Conn., and Dan- 

21 



22 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

bury just across the State line, this region became 
naturally the winter quarters for the New York 
shows. The circuses would start out from our 
section each spring, and come back to us in the fall, 
for winter quarters. In this way all our part of the 
State got to talking circus. There was old HakaHah 
Bailey, of Somers — Somerstown Plains it was, 
back in my day — five miles below Carmel. He 
brought over the first elephant ever seen in the 
county. "Old Bett," he called her. In front of the 
tavern there in Somers — the Old Elephant Hotel 
they called it — you can see even yet a pedestal with 
an elephant carved on top of it. And Seth Howe, 
down at Turk's Hill, near Brewsters', when he came 
to make his fine summer home there, had stone 
animals carved and stuck around the grounds here 
and there. Besides, there was Gerard Crane, of 
Somers — everybody has heard of "Howe and 
Crane's Great London Circus." Then there was 
Turner, of Bailey and Turner, of Danbury; and 
later on, Phineas Barnum, from Bridgeport. Isaac 
Van Amberg also started his menagerie from our 
section. The Weekses, also well-known in the cir- 
cus business, came from Carmel. The town was 
full of circus, back in those early days. 

So when Nate Howe, from down Brewsters' way 
— he was Seth Hov^e's brother — rounded me up 
one day as I was on one of my calf-buying trips, and 
said he was looking for a smart and handy young 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 23 

man like me, to be a driver and an all-round man 
with his show, I got the fever and started in. They 
put me at all sorts of work. In those days the circus 
was a one-horse affair compared to what it has 
grown to now, and one man would have to help 
out in a dozen different kinds of work. He would 
be a mule-driver, canvas-man, gate-keeper and 
feeder of the animals, sometimes all in one day. 
And most like as not, now and then he would have 
to turn in and help out with the clown's part. The 
clowns in those days had speaking parts. They 
cracked jokes on the politicians and local celeb- 
rities in the village where the show was exhibiting, 
sang the ballad, "Betsy Baker," and did flipflaps. 
Then, too, since there wasn't much advertising in 
those days, when we landed in a town and while 
the workmen were getting the canvas up, the one 
of us who was acting the clown for the day would 
go along the street, togged out in his tom-fooleries, 
and with a bugler parading in front. After he had 
got a crowd around him he would mount a barrel- 
head in front of the village tavern — about the time 
the stage arrived, if possible — and from that stump 
would announce the show, tell where it was to be 
found, and read off the list of the animals that would 
be shown. I used to like the part of clown. It 
was fun to crack jokes and set the boys and girls 
to laughing. I always did like a good joke, anyhow. 
Inside the canvas we used to have the animals 



24 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

arranged along one side, with the seats for the people 
along the other side. The performers' ring was in the 
middle, between the two. I was a good hand with 
the beasts, because I knew how to handle them. 
With the hay animals, such as deer, elk, zebu-cows 
and so forth, I was right at home, having been raised 
on a farm. Elephants were regarded in those days jl 
as dangersome; but my farmer training with horses 
and horned critters made me now a good man for 
handling risky beasts of all kinds. Then, when it 
came to the big cats, such as tigers and other blood- 
thirsty varmints, I knew how to get butchers' meat 
for them of the right kind and in the right way. 
Because Td been, so to speak, in the butcher's line 
also. Upon landing in town, if it was the day for 
feeding them — we used to feed the cats only every 
other day, so as to keep them healthy; because in 
their native state they don't eat much oftener than 
that — I would look up some butcher and get him 
to give me a basket of bones and scraps for the cats. 
I would pay him by getting the clown to make 
mention of the butcher's name in some flattering 
manner, during the performance that afternoon. 
Sometimes a butcher would give me all the scrap 
meat I needed, on condition that he wasn't to be 
hit by any of the jokes — this would be after I'd 
hinted to him that the clown was going to get off 
some good jokes at those merchants in the town 
who didn't support the show. I knew how to handle 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 25 

men, as well as animals. And being smart and 
handy at all sorts of work, I was promoted higher 
and higher; finally I was offered a part ownership 
in the show. Like as not I would have taken it. 
But just then something happened: I got religion. 
The churches were not very numerous in those 
days. So when a preacher wanted to get up a 
revival in a part of his circuit away from his meeting- 
house, he would use a grove, if it was summer time, 
or a schoolhouse, in the winter. It was good business 
policy for us circus people, on a Sunday, to be seen 
in church along with the godly; because it kind 
of gave respectability to our business — it helped 
out the "Great Moral Exhibition," on our show- 
bills. Never shall I forget that day, or that meeting, 
when I first got converted. First along during the 
meeting I was cold as an icicle — just a looker-on. 
But pretty soon the religious melodies began to get 
hold of me. Those were hymns with an edge to 
them, in those days. Seems as if hymns we sing 
nowadays aren't anywheres near so searching power- 
ful as those we used to hear: 

"Tremble, my soul, and kiss the sun; 
Sinner, obey thy Saviour's call; 
Else your damnation hastens on. 
And hell gapes wide to wait your fall." 

I tell you, tunes like that don't let you forget them. 



26 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

They keep ringing in your head, no matter how i| 
many years have passed since. In those days they 
didn't mince matters : 

**Far in the deep, where darkness dwells, 
A realm of horror and despair, 
Justice has built a dismal hell 
And laid her stores of vengeance there. 

"Eternal plagues and heavy chains. 
Tormenting racks and fiery coals, 
And darts to inflict immortal pains, 
Dyed in the blood of damned souls." 

I got religion then and there. When the preacher 
called out, "Hasten, sinner, to be wise," I hastened. 
I didn't stop to ask what my old companions would 
think of it. (I never did care what people thought 
of me, anyhow.) All I thought of was to get to the 
mourners' bench. And so it wasn't lon^ before I 
was up there, in front of the whole congregation. 
I told them I had a fervent desire to flee from the 
wrath to come. 

It made considerable of a stir, this conversion of 
mine. For a circus man to come over onto the 
Lord's side, was a triumph for the army of Gideon. 
The brethren gathered around me with great joy. 
The preacher pressed me to tell the congregation 
how I felt. I rose and spoke. Words always did 
come sort of easy with me — that is, the plain, 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 27 

every-day words. Besides, when a young fellow 
has practised speaking from a barrel-head in front 
of a village tavern, dressed in outlandish fashion, 
and telling the people the way to the circus grounds, 
he isn't going to be scared at a congregation of 
people inside a church. So on the present occasion 
I had wondrous liberty. In fact I gave in my testi- 
mony with such acceptance that the minister came 
to me after the service and told me I ought to become 
a preacher. This was a side of the matter I hadn't 
looked at. In my testimony I had told the people 
that "from this time forth I was going to serve the 
Lord." But as to taking up preaching, that was a 
different matter. There isn't much chance in 
preaching to get rich. So, after turning it over in 
my mind, I told him that I didn't feel any call. 
And I went back to the drover's business. 

I was glad that I had become converted. 
Because the circus business didn't promise to bring 
me in any such money as I felt I could make buy- 
ing cattle, now that I'd saved up capital enough to 
start in. 



IV 



Now began the real work of my life. For 
until this time I had been earning money 
hit or miss, as the chance offered. I was 
getting nowhere. But, starting now into the drover's 
business in good earnest, I found my main bent. 
About this time a wave of prosperity was setting 
in throughout the country. The nation had recov- 
ered from the effects of the v/ar. The banks were 
resuming specie payments. Trade revived. New 
York City was calling for butcher's meat. Dur- 
ing the war she had had a long fast, so to speak. 
Now she began to eat. Her population was growing 
like sixty. City Hall Park had formerly been way 
up town. Now it was getting to be in the centre, i 
with houses all around. To keep this big and 
growing city in butcher's meat was a work in itself. 
That was where we drovers got a living. Putnam 
County and the region round about is so hilly that 
it is fit for raising stock better than for anything else. 
A steer or a sheep can thrive on hillsides where a 
plough would tip over. Besides, it is on the same 
side of the Hudson River as New York, and only 
a few miles above it. Thus the Harlem Valley, 

28 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 29 

leading down through Westchester County, soon 
became a channel through which drovers brought 
cattle to feed the thousands of hungry mouths in 
the city at the foot of Manhattan Island. 

As a drover I had trouble first along, the same 
as when I went into the calf business, because the 
farmers didn't like to sell me their cattle on credit. 
But I managed to get around them in one w^ay or 
another. I would ride up to a farmer's house — 
during this time of my life I was rarely out of the 
saddle except to eat or sleep, occasionally even driv- 
ing cattle at night to save time, for hunger in the 
belly puts spurs to the heels — and, instead of start- 
ing in with talk about buying, I would say: 

"Hello, Brother So-and-So" (the news of how I 
had got religion helped me with the farmers); "how 
are you off for fat stock ? " 

Upon his answering that he had a pair or so of 
fit cattle, I'd say: 

"Well, now, I'm taking a drove into the city next 
week. If you say so, I'll take yours along, too, 
and sell them for you, for old acquaintance's sake. 
I know two or three butchers down there in the 
city, and calculate I can sell those critters for you 
at a top price." I had learnt good and early that 
if you haven't got honey in the crock, you must have 
it in the mouth. 

The plan worked fine. That is, first along. I 
got several hundred head of cattle on these terms, 



30 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

and they seldom failed to bring a good price in the 
city. So that before long I had scraped together 
a nice little capital. To be sure, the farmers who 
let me have the stock on these terms would keep 
pestering me for the money. But I put them off with 
one excuse or another. Sometimes I would soften 
a man's anger by paying him part of what was 
coming to him, and tell him he'd have to wait for 
the balance until after my next trip. In cases where 
I couldn't quiet a creditor in this way, I had still 
another shift, for I always was a resourceful fellow. 
I would change my base of operations to another 
part of the county, so far away that the farmers I 
had traded with the last time couldn't reach me. 
Unfortunately, word would sometimes get around 
ahead of me, so that when I'd ride up to a farm- 
house and try to get cattle without paying cash, 
I would be turned down. There was Len Clift, 
over near Brewsters', for one. I had agreed with 
him on the price of a calf. Then, as I was about 
to lead the critter off, I told him he would have to 
trust me a few days, as I was a little short of ready 
cash just at that moment. 

"Trust you.?" said he. "Wouldn't trust you no 
further than you can throw a hog by the tail." 

I didn't get riled up. Getting riled up is poor 
business. A man isn't fit for a business career until 
he has learned never to get riled up; or leastwise, 
never to show it on the outside, even if he is all 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 31 

riled up inside. I sort of explained the thing to 
Len and coaxed; but he answered a plump "No" 
every time. "You'll get the calf when I get the 
money. Not a minute sooner." 

"Len," said I, finally, when I saw that he wasn't 
to be moved; "you won't trust me for the price of 
one lousy little calf.? All right. But, Len CHft, 
the time'll come when I'll have money enough 
to buy your whole farm. Remember what I'm 
a-telling you." 

And the time did come, too. After I had made 
my fortune I bought his farm and made it into my 
country seat. I have got my family burying lot 
on that farm, now. "Drewsclift" I named the 
place. It's that beautiful farm just on the other 
side of the hill over from Brewsters' Village. The 
burying lot is out by the willow trees across the 
road from the house, down in the meadows. My 
parents had been buried in old Gilead Burying 
Ground at Carmel. I got the bodies dug up and car- 
ried over to this new burying lot, so I could establish 
a family cemetery. When a man makes a name 
for himself, he wants to make a family seat to go 
with the name. 

But though I had a turn-down once in a while, 
such as this one from Len Clift, I found many a 
farmer obliging enough to sell me calves and cows 
and steers and sheep on credit. A very good device, 
I found, was first to haggle with the farmer over the 



32 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

price, and beat him down to the lowest penny. For, 
strange as it might sound, this incHnes the farmer 
to trust you. You see, his mind figures it out some- 
thing Hke this: 

"That there drover is anxious to get a bottom 
figure, because he's good pay, and means, when 
the time comes, to settle up promptly and penny 
for penny. He wants to get a good contract because 
he is the kind of a fellow to live up to it word for 
word. To be sure, he is a tight fellow to deal with, 
but at least he is a safe fellow, and so I guess Fll 
let him have this pair of cattle on credit." In 
these ways, working now one plan and now another, 
I got together a nice little sum of money. 

It was about this time that the field of business 
for drovers was widened to take in the great Mohawk 
valley. The city on Manhattan Island was grow- 
ing so fast that our little section up in the Harlem 
valley couldn't raise cattle fast enough to supply 
her butchers. So a new region now was tapped, 
the country to the north, across the Hudson. For 
some time back I had been on the look-out for a 
new place to move to. Change of pasture makes 
fat steers; and it's sometimes good for a business 
man, too. So I got to going on trips "out West," 
as we called it. I would ride up north and cross 
over into the region around Cherry Valley (that is 
where the massacre in the Revolutionary War by 
those red savages took place). There I would get 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 33 

a drove of cattle and start with them back towards 
New York City. We had regular routes which we 
followed with our droves. The taking of live stock 
overland to the New York market had got to be an 
established business by this time, with regular stop- 
ping places. There were tavern-keepers here and 
there along the route who catered to drovers. They 
would have a big pasture lot alongside the tavern, 
divided into two or three pastures to take care of 
several herds at once. When, hot and sore at the 
end of a day's drive, I reached one of these taverns, 
the inn-keeper would be there with his "Hello, 
Dan! I thought youM be coming along about this 
time. Been expecting you these two weeks or more. 
Put your critters out in the orchard lot. The pas- 
ture there is as fine as a fiddle just now; and come 
in and rest your bones. Boy, take his horse." 

From Cherry Valley we would strike across and 
into the old Schoharie Valley. This we would 
follow until we got to Middleburgh, an old Dutch 
settlement. We hired sloughters here to drive the 
cattle (in that locality they call a low, worth- 
less fellow a "sloughter"). There we would put up 
for the night at a tavern called "The Bull's Head." 
I mention this tavern in particular, because of 
another "Bull's Head Inn" which I will tell you 
about later on. This "Bull's Head" at Middle- 
burgh got its name from a big bull's head that was 
painted on a shed opposite the tavern, on the other 



34 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

side of the road, to show that drovers were taken 
care of there. The tavern was a long, plain, two- 
story house, just where the turnpike crosses a creek. 
The creek flows down from the high hills back of 
the inn, and had sweet and soft water at every 
season of the year. The cattle used to like the water 
in that brook. This whole valley is as level as a 
barn floor, and flowing with pastures. 

About nine miles further along from Middle- 
burgh was an inn kept by young Brom Scutt, at a 
place called Livingstonville. He had a sign painted 
and hung up, "Drovers' Holm." (There used to 
be a saying around, that that sign wasn't spelled 
right; but we drovers never set much store by spel- 
ling; we were a mighty sight more particular about 
good feed and water in the pasture back of the tav- 
ern, than for good spelling on the sign-board in 
front of the tavern.) From there we'd go on to 
Preston's Hollow and Cairo. Then to Catskill on 
the Hudson River. Here we'd ferry across and 
then would be on the New York City side of the 
river. (By thus skirting close around the Catskill 
Mountains, we had saved miles and miles in the 
journey from the Mohawk down and into the Harlem 
valley.) Then when we were safely on the east 
side of the Hudson, we would veer in a south-easterly 
direction into Dutchess County. There were drovers* 
taverns at Dover Wings, Hurd's Corners, Haviland's 
Corners, Sodom, and Somers. Then down into 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 35 

and through the Harlem Valley, which I have men- 
tioned before, and so across the Harlem River by 
the King's Bridge. Once across the King's Bridge, 
it was but a day's travel down Manhattan Island 
to New York. 



IT WAS about this time in my life that I got 
married — to an estimable young lady in 
my home county. For, though my drover 
trips were now taking me far afield, I didn't cut 
loose from Putnam County altogether. Winter 
time would find me back home. You can't drive 
cattle in the winter time. The hard roads and 
sharp ice would make them hoof-sore very quick. 
For drovers, winter time is rest time. (For that 
matter midsummer is also a bad time for the drover 
business, because in very hot weather a drove of 
cattle would sweat pounds of good fat off their 
flanks before you'd get them across even one county.) 
For drovers springtime and fall are the favourable 
seasons. So every winter would find me back 
in Carmel, doing what I could at odd jobs to earn 
my board, until the roads thawed out again in the 
spring. 

Winter was the time for society affairs in Carmel. 
I never was much of a hand for society, being more 
fitted to size up a critter and buy him at a good figure 
than I was to make much of a shine in social circles. 
Still, I knew how to spark the girls. Of a winter's 

36 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 37 

night at Carmel we used to have high old times at 
sleigh rides and the mite societies. Then there 
were the paring-bees — we used to call them "apple- 
cuts'* — and the singing school, nut-cracking parties, 
candy-pulls — what not ? I was ratherish slow at 
getting started off to one of these shindigs. But 
once there and into the thick of it, I could carry 
my part with any of them. There was an apple- 
cut one night that I remember as well as I do my 
own name. We were playing the game "Wink 
and follow." After a while my turn came to be It. 
I caught one of the girls and said: "Laura, now Tve 
got you." She looked me straight in the eyes and 
said: "Dan, you're not going to kiss me unless 
you're stronger than I be. And I know you be." 
I was. When it would come time for the refresh- 
ments, I used to step forward and help pass the 
fried cake, new cider, apples and hickory nuts, 
fine as anything. 

Well, as I started to say, I got married. It was 
more or less this way. My brother Tom, two years 
before, had married one of the Mead girls, who 
lived over on Turk's Hill (just below where Seth 
Howe built his fine home with those imitation 
animals — I think I've wrote about it further back). 
Their father was a farm labourer. This Abigail 
Mead, my brother's wife, had a sister who was 
younger, just as I was younger than my brother 
Tom. Her name was Roxana — Roxana Mead. 



38 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

(That's where the name "Mead Hall," at Drew 
Theological Seminary, comes from. That's my 
wife's picture in the Hall. But I'm getting ahead 
of my story.) What more natural, than that I and 
Roxana should get acquainted. When your brother 
has got a wife, and that wife has got a sister, there 
are going to be no end of chances for you and that 
sister to get to know each other. And, to make a 
long story short, we up and married. She was 
tall. So was I. Folks said we made a fine-looking 
pair as we stood side by side to be yoked together 
by the preacher. 

I am sorry to say that I had lost my religion dur- 
ing these drover days. It's hard, anyhow, for a 
cattle dealer to keep religion. He is away from 
home too much. During these days I was always 
on the go — never was one of your lazy-bones; 
better to wear out shoes than sheets, was my motto. 
And when you're away from home you get sort of 
careless-like. You haven't got your own people 
around to kind of keep you straightened up. More 
than that, it is hard to keep religion when you 
haven't any one church to go to. In these days I 
was scurrying from pillar to post, sleeping out- 
doors or in barns, farmhouses, strange taverns — 
where not ^ And the upshot was, I by and by 
drifted from the means of grace. I back- 
slided. 

But I didn't slip back so far as to be unmindful 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 39 

of my lost condition. Now and then I would 
feel some movings of the spirit when I would 
pass a burying lot, particularly if it was at 
night. The white stones would stand out so ghost- 
like, it would sometimes make me clutch the bridle 
to keep from shivering. And the old words I 
had heard so often in meeting, would ring in my 
ears: 

"Hark, from the tombs a doleful sound; 
Mine ears attend the cry. 
Ye living men, come, view the ground 
Where you must shortly lie. 

"And you, mine eyes, look down and view 
I The hollow, gaping tomb. 

f This gloomy prison waits for you 

Whene'er the summons comes." 

At such times I accounted myself a mortal worm, 
fallen from grace, and open to all the bolts and fiery 
darts of heaven. From which it can be seen that, 
though I no longer had the joy which first I felt, 
but had lost the witness of my adoption, never- 
theless the spirit was not entirely quenched 
within me. Accordingly, when a revival broke 
out in Carmel at about the time of which I am 
now writing, I went. The sermon that night 
was powerful searching, even to the dividing 
asunder of the joints and marrow. And before 



40 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

the meeting came to an end, I was wondrously 
saved. 

"Glory to God who treads the sky, 
And sends his blessings through; 
Who tells his saints of joys on high. 
And gives a taste below!" 

I tell you, though I'm not much on singing myself, 
I swung in on the rest of that hymn: 

"Glory to God who stoops his throne. 
That dust and worms may see it; 
And brings a glimpse of glory down 
Around his sacred feet." 

Besides, it was a help in business for me to 
be back among the church people; because, being 
married now, I wanted to kind of settle down at 
Carmel. But there were a number of farmers there- 
abouts who were cold-shouldering me, saying I 
owed them for calves and steers. And as they were 
for the most part church people, I was glad to get 
religion once more and be taken back into good 
company. 

Now I began to be a person of consequence in 
the community. I was married. I was back in 
the church. And, what is more, I was a man of 
money. In fact, as to money, I was piling it up 
pretty fast these days. For New York seemed to 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 41 

be getting hungrier every day for fat steers. 'Most 
every one of my trips there helped now to Hne my 
jacket. Besides, at about this time I hit upon a 
scheme one day, as I was going to the city with a 
drove of cattle, which sluiced a lot more money into 
my pocket. 



VI 



FORMERLY drovers into New York City had 
to take their droves to the old " Bull's Head," 
which was on the Bowery Lane, not far 
from where the Bowery Theatre stands. There 
the butchers from the stalls down on Fulton Street 
would meet the drovers coming into town and buy 
their stock. 

But there was a butcher by the name of Astor — 
Henry Astor, his name was — who got into the habit, 
whenever a drover would be reported as coming 
into town, of leaving his brother butchers tippling 
at the Bowery "Bull's Head," skip out through 
the back door of the tavern, mount his horse, ride 
up the Bowery Road, and meet the drove before 
it got down to where the other butchers were waiting. 
Astor would stop the drove and pick out the prime 
beeves before any one else had a chance at them. 
By and by the other butchers got on to his trick and 
also began to ride up to the Bowery to meet the 
herds. In this way a new " Bull's Head " was estab- 
lished, way out on the Boston Road, where Twenty- 
sixth Street now is. (The "Boston Road" is now 
Third Avenue.) By my time this new "Bull's 

42 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 43 

Head" had got to be the cattle market, the drovers' 
headquarters for the city. 

Henry Astor — I got to know him well — was 
one of the most thriving butchers in the city. He 
was a German. He had come over in the Revolu- 
tionary War as a sutler following the Hessian Troops. 
His brother, John Jacob Astor, came over a little 
later; and Henry started him in business as a ped- 
dler of knickknacks among the trading sloops that 
were tied up at the wharves. It was in this way, 
I guess, that John Jacob got in with the fur traders, 
and later made a peck of money; so that his son 
gave the Astor Library there, a little below where 
my "Bull's Head" tavern was located. But this 
is getting ahead of my story. 

As I was driving my herd down through the 
Harlem valley one day, I got to thinking how anxious 
Henry Astor always was to get fat cattle. (I worked 
the scheme on any number of the New York butchers 
as time went on, so it will be understood that 
Tm now taking Astor merely as a type, because he 
is one of the best-known butchers of that time and 
because I got to know him perhaps better than I 
did the others.) As I was riding along, suddenly 
I hit upon the idea. And with me, to think of 
doing a thing means to begin to do it. 

We came on along the Bronx River by old man 
Williams's bridge and across Gun Hill Road, which 
was deep and heavy — almost as heavy, I reckoned. 



44 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

as the time when the cannons sunk on that hill up 
to the hubs and General George Washington had 
to leave them to the British. Then crossing the 
Harlem on the King's Bridge, I brought the drove 
over to Harlem Village on the easterly side of the 
Island, about w^here Third Avenue now crosses 
125th Street. There I put up for the night, since 
there was a good inn with several pasture lots along- 
side, in that village. I told my cattle boys to turn 
in early and get a good sleep, for we would be in 
New York City on the morrow. 

That night, when all the rest were asleep — the 
cattle boys used to sleep in the barn on the hayloft — 
I went out to the drove in the pasture alongside 
the tavern, and emptied sacks of salt on the ground, 
scattering it so every critter could get some. Then 
I saw that all the bars were tight. I didn't want 
any of them to get out and drink. Til explain why 
when I get along a little further. People have 
heard tell of the expression, "watered stock," that 
is used in Wall Street. This is where that there 
Wall Street term came from. So I want to write it 
down in proper order. 

After the cattle had been well salted and the bars 
all safe and tight, I turned in and went asleep. Next 
morning I got up good and early. Didn't need any 
one to wake me. The cattle were lowing long before 
the sun was up, as though they wanted something 
or other almighty bad. By the time I got downstairs 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 45 

a couple of cattle boys were up and getting ready 
to let down the bars, to lead them out to water. 

"Hey, there, what are you louts doing ?" I called 
out. " Put up those bars right away and bring back 
that critter you've let out." 

*'But, boss," said one of them, **they're choked 
for water." 

"What if they are .^" said I. "Would you poison 
these critters by giving them water they aren't 
used to ? These cattle are fresh from the country. 
This here is an island surrounded by the salt sea. 
The water here isn't what it is up country. We 
must get them used to this new region first. I guess 
I know my business. Not one of these critters gets 
a smitch of water until I give the word. D'ye hear ? 
Go now^; get a bite of feed, and we'll start for the 
city. 

Thus I kept the drove from water; and as soon 
as breakfast was over, started them along the turn- 
pike. At the same time I sent word ahead by a 
rider to Henry Astor, telling him that I was coming 
with some prime cattle and for him to meet me at 
the "Bull's Head" about noon. We trudged along, 
going slow; it was hot as mustard, and I didn't 
want to sweat any meat off my critters. 

Below Yorkville — that's the village that used to be 
over on the Boston Road, about where Eighty-sixth 
Street now crosses it — was a little stream called 
the Saw-Kill, with a bridge crossing it. It was 



46 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

called "Kissing Bridge/' because couples walking 
out that way used to kiss whenever they came to 
the bridge. It was a recognized custom. The 
bridge itself was below Yorkville, not far from where 
Seventy-seventh Street now cuts through. It was a 
low stone bridge, and hardly to be told from the road 
itself. But I guess young sparks and their sweet- 
hearts never failed to know when they were crossing it. 
Well, by the time the cattle got to that stream, on 
the drive down from Harlem Village, they were 
all-fired thirsty. The cattle boys, too, were glad 
to see the water. (We used to call these boys 
"ankle beaters," because they had orders when they 
were beating the cattle not to strike any higher than 
the ankle, for fear of bruising the flesh and making 
it unsound for market.) The boys had been feel- 
ing for the poor, suffering critters, and now were 
laying out to give them a good, long drink. But 
I had other fish to fry. I rode back to where they 
were. In taking a drove along the turnpike I used 
to ride ahead to pick out the road, leaving the boys 
to follow behind with the cattle. I said to them: 
" Boys, line up along the road there by the bridge, 
or those critters will get off away from you." 

"Oh, they'll be all right," piped up one of the 
lads. "They smell the water already, and will 
make for it without any help from us." 

"Make for nothing!" said I. I knew how to 
put command in my tone, when it was herd-boys I 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 47 

was dealing with. "I don't want one of those crit- 
ters to get to that there brook. Didn't you hear 
me tell you this morning about the poison that's 
in this salt air and this island water, to critters that 
have been raised in fresh water-regions ^ Not a drop 
do they get, and pelt them with dirt clods if you've 
got to. Get them over the bridge dry-shod." 

They minded me. They had to. They had 
seen me plaster mud all over a steer when he didn't 
go to suit me, and they knew I could do it to them, 
too, if they didn't mind. I got the drove over the 
bridge high and dry. Pretty soon we were at the 
"Bull's Head." I told the boys to take the cattle 
into the pasture pen that was back of the tavern, 
where the well was. Then I went around in front 
to the tap-room, as soon as I had put my horse 
out, to look for Astor. He wasn't come yet, so I 
went in to dinner. Then I waited for him on the 
stoop in front of the tavern, alongside the Boston 
Road. Pretty soon I saw him come up the turn- 
pike, riding his horse. I got up and shook him 
by the hand. 

**Got my message, I see," said I, as he was getting 
off his horse. " You know whom to come to when 
you want prime stock." 

"Well," said he. "I don't know as I'm buying 
much to-day. Market's mighty poor. But thought 
I would ride up for friendship's sake, and take a 
look at your critters." (Being a German, he spoke 



48 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

crooked English. It was curious to hear him. I 
wish I could set it down here the way he spoke it.) 

I was in hopes he'd go into the tap-room and take 
something. Because when you're bargaining with 
a man it's always easier if he's got something inside. 
For then he takes a rosy view of things and doesn't 
stop to haggle over pennies. Get ale inside of a 
man, it makes him speak as he thinks. But Astor 
wouldn't take anything. He only asked the land- 
lord for a drink of water. Then I saw that I had 
an uphill job on my hands. I was glad that he hadn't 
come in a gig and brought his wife along, because 
then I'd have had two of them against me; and Hen 
Astor's wife, Dorothy, was a money-maker, just 
like himself. She used to help him in the slaughter- 
house, doing up butcher's small meats — that is, 
the tongue, liver, kidneys and such like; she helped 
make him the rich man that he got to be after a 
while. I knew that with Hen Astor by himself I 
was going to have my hands full. But I went to 
it with a will. I asked him to wait for me a minute 
while I stepped out to see if my horse was being fed. 

With this as an excuse, I skipped around to 
where my cattle boys were. I said: '*My lads, I 
guess those critters are used to the climate by this 
time, and can now drink in safety. Buckle to and 
give them all the water they can drink." 

You should have seen them get to work. Cattle 
boys get real fond of their critters. A drover likes 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 49 

his critters because they mean money to him. 
"Ankle-beaters" often get to like them out of real 
affection. And you should have seen the cattle go 
at it, too. You'd have thought they'd not had a 
drink for an age. The salt had done its work. 
A quart of salt to every pair of cattle is a fair allow- 
ance; in the present case I had allowed them a little 
more than that. So that now they sucked the water 
in like sponges. Do the best they could, the boys 
couldn't keep the trough full. The steers fairly 
fought with each other for a drink. So I told off 
a couple of the boys to take part of the herd over to 
another pasture across the road, where there was a 
big pump, and start that going too. Then, when 
I saw that the thing was nicely under way, I went 
back to the tavern, where Astor was waiting for me. 
"It beats all how these hostlers need looking 
after," said I. "If I hadn't gone out there to the 
barn they'd have starved that mare of mine. A 
thimbleful of oats no bigger than that, as true 
as you live, that's what they were giving my 
mare. And she as big as two ordinary horses. But 
how are you, anyhow .? " And I seated myself 
beside him on the stoop. I took a fresh chew of 
tobacco, and offered him some. I thought it a good 
plan to sit and visit for a spell. It gets your cus- 
tomer into a neighbourly frame of mind; and then, 
too, in this present case it would give my boys time 
for the watering. 



50 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

"I'm not so very chirpy/' he grumbled. "How 
are you ? " 

"Fine as a fiddle," said I; "and what's ailing 
you r 

"All kinds of troubles," he went on. "The life 
of a cattle butcher, Dan, isn't what it used to be. 
There are so many in the business nowadays. And 
housewives come to my stall there in the Fulton 
Market and buy my best meats — top slices, no 
second cuts for them — and then, when I or Doro- 
thy go to see them, they won't pay their bills. And 
the stall is getting so crowded, the hucksters and 
salad women have been signing a paper against 
me, because, they say, I've built my stall across the 
whole end of the market, and have crowded them 
out under the eaves, where they're exposed to the 
sun and weather. I'm a licensed victualler — I 
guess I've got some rights there. And then, too, 
the city fathers these days are getting so pernickety. 
You remember the market used to be on Maiden 
Lane — it was built over a running stream that 
was used as a city sewer. Very handy for us, 
because we could drop the swill and such like right 
through a hole in the floor. But the City Board 
didn't do anything else but talk everlastingly about 
* nauseous and pestilential vapours,' and kept it up 
till we moved the market up onto Fulton Street. 
And now they're getting more pernickety still. 
Why, Dan, since the small-pox came they are getting 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 51 

so they won't allow our hogs to run in the streets 
any longer.'* 

"Heinrich Astor!" said I (he liked to be called 
by his German name); "what won't they be order- 
ing next ? Pigs in the street are the best scavengers 
a city can have. You mark what I tell you, Hen; 
if they shut the pigs up, the gutters will get so full 
of slops and stuff, there won't be any living inside 
the city limits. Why, it would take a herd of swine 
to clean up what your slaughter-houses alone dump 
into the street." 

"There you are again," he broke in. He was 
getting riled up. "That fussy old board of city 
fathers have gone and passed another ordinance, 
that butchers mustn't empty any more refuse in 
the street gutters. So now we have to cart the blood 
and guts way over to the river. I'd like to know how 
dogs, to say nothing of the hogs, are going to get a 
living inside the city limits, if this sort of thing keeps 
on. And without dogs, where would we be, at night ? 
Why, just the other day a farm below me on the 
Bowery Road lost no end of chickens by the foxes." 

"That loss of poultry will make more call for 
cow meat," said I; "and. Hen, between you and 
me, I've brought you some of the fittest beeves 
this trip that ever set foot on Manhattan Island. 
We'll step out and take a look, if you say so.'* I 
knew by this time that the boys would be through 
with the watering. So we went out. 



52 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

Sure enough, when we got out into the pasture, 
you couldn't see a sign of a water-pail. And there, 
as plump and fat-looking as a man ever saw, stood 
the critters. I noticed out of the tail of my eye 
that Astor got interested all to once. 

"There are two or three good-sized ones in the 
bunch," he remarked. "I suppose you want to 
sell the drove at a lump sum. I wasn't calculating 
on buying any stock to-day. But seeing it's you, 
I might be able to make an offer for the drove as a 
whole — say, at so much a critter." 

"No," said I, "they go by the pound, this trip. 
Prime cattle such as these take a sight of time and 
fodder to fatten. I've had to get this herd together 
one at a time, the very best from a hundred farms. 
But it's worth the pains," I added, "when a fellow 
can bring to market a drove like this." He punched 
his thumb into two or three of the critters, and 
found them firm and solid. 

"Tolerable good," said he, "tolerable good. 
But I'm afeared most of them will be tough. I 
suppose, though, I could use them up for soup meat. 
Tell you what I'll do. I'll give you two and a 
quarter a pound just as they stand, and for one or 
all." 

I said that the figure I had set for this drove was 
four cents. He gave a snort and started towards 
the tavern as though disgusted. I didn't make any 
move to call him back; I knew that when a butcher 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 53 

finds what he thinks to be a drove of fat cattle, he 
isn't going to give up at the first crack. He Hkes the 
thought of a nice, fat carcass hanging from the 
hooks at his stall in the market. So, pretty soon, 
back he came. 

"Donner and Himmel!" he exclaimed, and he 
was red in the face. "You drovers take us towns- 
people for suckers. Til give you two and a half, 
and not a speck more. You can take it or leave 
it. Anyhow, Tm expecting another drover in from 
Long Island next week, and only came up to-day 
to just kind of look around." 

I met him by coming down half a cent. I hadn't 
thought for a minute that I could get the four-cent 
price I had named. I had mentioned that figure 
in order to have something to back away from, 
when we got down to business. You must ask 
much to get a little. 

He snorted off once more; but he didn't get so 
far this time. "Two and three quarters," said 
he, coming back. "And there isn't a cent in it 
for me at that figure, so help me Gott!" 

I told him the very best I could do was three and a 
quarter, and only made it that figure because he was 
willing to take the whole drove. "It's the beneath- 
enest price I ever saw offered for choice stock such 
as these," said I. "It costs money. Hen, to pump 
corn into a heifer until her loins stand out like the 
hams on a hog." 



54 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

He backed away. We dickered a spell longer. 
Finally we hit on a flat three-cent price. The cattle 
were driven on the scales. (They weighed up fine, 
as you can believe.) He paid over the money, and 
took them ofFdown to his slaughter-pen, not far from 
the Bowery. I was happy, and he went off happy, 
too. Because a butcher likes to get heavy critters. 
To be sure they cost him more, but fat beef in a 
butcher's stall goes like hot cakes, where stringy 
joints wouldn't sell at all. So it was what I call a 
good bargain, seeing that both of us were pleased. 

It can be seen now what a lucky thought it was for 
me — that salting device. The salt cost but a few 
pennies a bag, and by means of it nigh onto fifty 
pounds had been added to the selling weight of every 
critter in the drove — a full-grown critter will 
drink that weight of water if you get her good and 
thirsty. Thus I took in as my profits on this trip 
as fine a penny as a man could ask. 



VII 



I FELT so rich from my stock-watering deal 
that I stayed at the "BulFs Head" tavern 
a spell. And, a day or two after the business 
with Astor, I started down to the city to see about 
getting a new saddle. My old one was so worn 
that the stuffing was coming out; for, although I 
had been making money for some years back, I 
hadn't felt like spending any more of it than I could 
help. My idea in those days was: Better a hen 
to-morrow than an egg to-day. Small savings, if 
you keep them up long enough, mean big savings 
by and by. If a fellow is going to be rich, he must 
get money working for him early in life. A swarm 
of bees in May is worth a load of hay; but a swarm 
in July isn't worth a fly. 

Now, however, I felt rich enough to afford a new 
saddle. So I mounted my mare and started down 
to New York. I went by the Bowery Lane. I had 
to. That was the only road into the city in those 
days. I knew that it would take me past Hen Astor's 
house, and I had felt it would be best not to see 
him for a spell, if I could help it. But there wasn't 
any other way into the city. The Broad Way, 

55 



56 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

which is now the main thoroughfare right through 
the middle of the island, hadn't been laid out then. 
The place where that road now runs was swamp 
and low land — "the Lispenard Meadows" we 
called it. A farmer who bought a tract of it was 
joshed a good deal, his friends all saying it would 
be a good farm for raising a fine crop of frogs. So 
I rode boldly down the Bowery Lane. 

But just before I got to Henry's place, I thought 
better of the matter and turned off to the right, across 
lots. I found a lane there that led into the meadows, 
these being dry enough this time of the year for 
safe walking for the horse. The Broad Way by 
this time had run up from the city a little beyond 
and across the stream where Canal Street now is. 
(Canal Street got its name when they dug out that 
stream and made a good-sized canal there, in order 
to drain the swamp and the Collect Pond just above 
City Hall Park.) I calculated on reaching this road 
across lots, and then following it down into the city. 
It took me some time to reach it, because I had to 
wind in and out to dodge the water-holes. But I got 
out onto the Broad Way road at last. Then I was 
all right; for in dry weather it was from here on a 
good thoroughfare into the city — almost as hard 
and safe, in fact, as the Bowery Road. It crossed 
the Canal Street Brook on a low stone bridge. Just 
beyond was the Stone Bridge Tavern. I knew the 
locality, because around this tavern was a horse- 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 57 

exchange, where old plugs and broken nags 
were sold to the street hawkers and fish-men 
of the city. Just above what is now White Street 
I had to dismount; for there was a pair of bars at 
this point to keep the cattle of the Lispenard Mead- 
ows from getting into the city. My mare wasn't 
enough of a hunter to jump the bar; and I wasn't 
anxious for it, either. Because a drover, if he is 
going to lay up money, doesn't have any time to 
break in hunters, or do much in the hunting busi- 
ness himself, either. So I led her through, backed 
her once more, and was soon down to New York. 

Reaching Wall Street, I hitched my mare to a lamp- 
post and started out to the saddler's. There were 
a number of good hotels down in New York at this 
time, with horse sheds attached, such as the Franklin 
House, over on the Broad Way, corner of Dey Street, 
and the Park Place Hotel, corner of Park Place. 
But the hostlers in those city hotels charged a fee 
even for tying your horse under the shed. It has 
always been my motto: Never feel rich, even though 
you have money in every bank in town. There 
are some young men so spendthrifty, they eat the 
calf while yet inside the cow. But not I. In those 
days a lamp-post was just as safe a place for a quiet 
mare as a hotel shed; and was good enough for me. 

I soon found that my dodging of Astor's place on 
the Bowery had been in vain. Because, as I was 
walking down towards "Dirty Lane" — that's the 



58 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW ! 

name that used to be given to South William Street — 
I happened to look back and spied him a-hurrying 
after to catch up with me. He must have seen me 
cut across lots to dodge going by his house; or 
maybe he had come over from his stall at the Fulton 
Market onto Wall Street, and had chanced to spy 
me. At any rate, there he was, a-following after, 
I didn't want to meet him just then and there; I 
could see that he was in a temper. So I turned the 
corner into William Street, and stepped into a tav- 
ern that was not far down the street. I guess I 
wasn't quick enough; for a minute or two later 
Astor came in the front door also. 

**Hey, you," said he, busting in through the door 
and puffing hard, "You tamned Dan Drew." (Hen 
Astor's English was more crooked than ever when 
he was excited.) "I vant to speak yust one word 
mit you, you — " 

But I didn't wait. It never pays to argue with a 
man when he's excited, and Hen now was very 
red in the face; I saw at a glance, that he was in no 
state of mind to talk a matter over calmly. So I 
hurried on through the tavern and out by the back 
door. There I cut over onto the other street through 
a lane before he could see which way I went, and 
so lost him. 

I decided, after thinking the matter over, that I 
wouldn't stay in the city to get a saddle this trip, 
after all. So I went back to my mare, unhitched 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 59 

her, and was soon back to the "Bull's Head," safe 
and sound. Then I rode away to Putnam County 
for another drove of cattle. 

The saying, "selling watered stock,'* has now got 
to be well-known in the financial world. So Tve 
wrote down in this paper about the affair of salting 
my critters. Some time later I became an operator 
in the New York Stock Exchange; I hung out my 
shingle on Broad Street. And the scheme was even 
more profitable with railroad stocks. If a fellow 
can make money selling a critter just after she has 
drunk up fifty pounds of water, what can't he make 
by issuing a lot of new shares of a railroad or steam- 
boat company, and then selling this just as though 
it was the original shares .? But for this drover 
time in my life, these smaller profits seemed mighty 
big. 

For I didn't let the salting scheme rest with only 
the one trial. After I got back to Putnam County 
I lost no time in getting another drove together 
and hurrying it back to the city. Astor didn't care 
to buy of me this second trip. Not that he kept 
mad for any length of time. He was the kind of 
a fellow to cool off after a few weeks. On this, 
my next trip to the city, I found him as civil as I 
could wish. But he wouldn't buy my cattle — made 
a number of excuses. He showed his friendly spirit, 
however, by introducing me to one of his fellow 
butchers in the Fulton Market; so that on the present 



6o THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

trip I dealt with this other butcher. In fact, I 
found that the stock-watering plan, while a money- 
maker, had certain drawbacks. Because from now 
on it compelled me to deal with a different butcher 
'most every trip. But that wasn't so bad as it 
might seem. For there were lots of butchers in the 
city; and in most cases I found that the butcher 
I'd dealt with the last time was willing to introduce 
me to one of his competitors, as a drover that handled 
choice stock. I took in profits with a big spoon. 



VIII 

BY THIS and other devices, one way or another, 
I had by this time got to be tolerable well 
off. In fact I had become known as one 
of the richest drovers that brought cattle to the 
New York market. When, therefore, not long after, 
the "Bull's Head" tavern found itself without a 
proprietor, what more natural than that I should 
step in and take the position ? I hadn't had any 
experience as an inn-keeper; but I'd had no end 
of dealings with inn-keepers. And I reckoned that 
a man who could make money taking care of droves, 
could also make money taking care of drovers. So 
I dickered with the people in charge, and got the 
place. I left Putnam County and moved down to 
the "Bull's Head." 

By this time there was a little settlement growing 
up around the tavern, known as " Bull's Head 
Village." My tavern was the centre of this village. 
So that, although we were some miles out from the 
city, we were never lonely for a minute. It was 
the centre of the New York hve-stock market. Dro- 
vers came to the "Bull's Head" from York State, 
Connecticut, Jersey, and Long Island, bringing their 

6i 



62 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

droves with them. Around my tavern there were 
cattle pens for the care of fifteen hundred head of 
cattle at once. There is nothing but the horse- 
market there now to show what the place used to 
be. New York's cattle yards have moved since 
then. They moved from the "Bull's Head," first 
up to Forty-second Street; then to Ninety-fourth 
Street; and now they are moving over to Jersey 
City. But in my time there wasn't a minute in 
the day when you couldn't hear there the moo of a 
heifer, the bleat of a lamb, or the neigh of a horse. 
Pretty soon a slaughter-house was built across the 
post-road and below the lane which is now 26th 
Street. Here and there, also, were little houses for the 
hired men to live in. There was a store for groceries 
and general merchandise. All in all, quite a village 
was growing up around the place. And I, as propri- 
etor of the " Bull's Head," was the king-pin of it all. 
Not that I owned the tavern. That belonged to 
the Peter Lorillard family. They had had a farm 
where the " Bull's Head" stood, back in Revolutionary 
times. General George Washington stayed at the 
house once and took a meal of victuals there. When 
finally the "Bull's Head" tavern was built, the 
mahogany table from the Lorillard house was put 
into the tavern as a part of the furniture. When I 
had any guests that I wanted to honour, I would 
set them at that table for dinner and tell them how 
General George Washington had eaten from it. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 63 

The tap-room of the tavern was on the corner. 
This was also the office and all-around room. The 
dining room was across the hall, and looked out 
onto the post-road, which is now Third Avenue. 
People eating in the dining room could peer out 
through the windows and see riders and vehicles 
passing well-nigh all the time, because this was the 
turnpike. It was the highroad to Boston. In 
that day all the through travel to New York City 
went by my tavern. Back in my time the tavern was 
seated on a hill, and you had to go down in order 
to reach the road. When the city streets were put 
through, this hill was cut down and a ground floor 
put in underneath. 

Out in the hall, a wide staircase with a mahogany 
railing led to the second floor. Upstairs the hall- 
ways were narrow and crooked. A fellow could 
get lost in them. In fact these winding passageways, 
Fm sorry to say, were the cause of a good many 
fights. The "Bull's Head" was noted for its fine 
liquors, such as hot "Tom and- Jerry," toddy, and 
such like. A drover starting upstairs for bed, after 
spending half the night in the tap-room drinking or 
playing "crack-loo," would often get lost upstairs 
in trying to find his room, and sometimes would 
get so turned around that he couldn't even find his 
way back to the office. Then from somewheres in 
an upper hall he'd holler out loud enough to wake 
the dead. He'd get mad as a Durham bull. He 



64 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

would call for some one to come and show him where 
he was. The sleepers near-by would turn out and 
cuss him for making such a noise; then the fat 
would be in the fire. Sometimes, instead of bellow- 
ing for help, the man, when he found that he w^as 
lost, would go into the first room he came to (since 
we didn't have keys and locks in those days), swear 
that it was his, and set to turn the other fellows out. 
Which would also result in a hell-roaring fight. 
In truth, the hallways were so crooked that I have 
known of a perfectly sober man to come downstairs 
of a morning, after a sight of muffled groans and 
swear-words from somewhere upstairs, wipe the 
sweat from his forehead, and out with a "Mighty 
Lord, but it's good to get here; I thought I never 
would find that stairway.'* Now and then of a night 
Td have a guest arrive at the inn late. And then 
I'd have to light a candle, take him upstairs, and 
put him in with one of my boarders. This would 
sometimes make the boarder mad. He'd cuss 
around in high fashion because I hadn't let him know 
beforehand who was going to be his bedfellow. As 
if I could help it that all of my rooms were full, 
and another guest arrived. Now and then I used 
to have a fight on my hands from this cause, some 
of my boarders were that unreasonable. 

There was a big wheat-field behind the tavern, 
and not far beyond that a grove of trees. Being on 
the post-road, picnic parties used to drive out from 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 65 

the city and spend the day in the grove. Cato's 
Tavern, further up by Yorkville, was more of a 
resort for society people of the city, in their drives 
into the country. But for turtle feasts, turkey 
shoots and such like affairs, the "Bull's Head" was 
the leading resort. In the fall of the year, around 
Thanksgiving time, we could put up a placard telling 
we were going to run a turkey shoot on such and 
such a date; and there would be going on to a hundred 
men there when the time came. I would advertise it 
on the bill something like this: 

Resting shot at 40 yds., 10 cts. 

Off-hand shot, at 40 " 5 

Resting shot at 30 " 15 

Off-hand shot at 30 " 10 

Any shot drawing blood, takes the bird. 

Perhaps these prices for shots may look to be rui- 
nously low, seeing that it costs money to fatten up a 
turkey. But in these turkey shoots the birds were 
not slaughtered as handily as you might think. 
Because on these occasions Td manage it so that 
the shooters got a glass or two of toddy, or of whiskey- 
punch sweetened with currant jelly, before the 
shooting began. Something toothsome like that was 
usually a coaxer for another glass; and then the 
fellow couldn't shoot straight. The liquor helped 
, also in another way. Because, when a fellow's 






66 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

got liquor aboard, he's pot-valiant. He thinks 
he can hit any mark at any distance; which leads 
him to pay for no end of shots, thus making more 
money for me without taking any more of my birds. 
So, even when, in order to get a fellow drinking, I 
had to give him the stuff first along without charge, 
in the end it more than paid. These turkey shoots 
were profitable in another way also. Because if 
the day was a good one, a lot of people would come 
to look on. So that, besides the fees for the shots, 
I made money from meals, shed room, horse feed, 
drinks, and such like. 

These shoots and like affairs were held back of 
the tavern towards the "Winding Creek," as we 
called it — Crumassie Vly, in Dutch. (That's 
where Gramercy Park gets its name.) This creek 
flowed through the farm of Jim Duane, and widened 
out into a pond just where Madison Square now 
is. Alongside the pond was the Bloomingdale 
Road (that is now the continuation of the Broad 
Way). Around the "Bull's Head" village other 
settlements were beginning to spring up, so that we 
had neighbours on all sides. Not long before 
I came, there had been a yellow fever scourge 
in the City of New York, which had driven the 
people out to the suburbs for the summer. When 
the summer was over and the fever was finally 
checked, many of the people liked it so well in the 
open country that they stayed. Thus the suburbs 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 67 

were built up. There was a settlement below us 
on the Boston Road called " Bowery Village." 
Peter Cooper kept a grocery store there. The 
children used to spend their pennies with him, 
buying taffy, gingerbread, a bunch of raisins, or 
those round, sour candies that later on got the 
name, ? Jackson Balls." Peter's house stood where 
the great Bible House now is. When he moved his 
home up to a spot back of my tavern on the Ruggles 
Place alongside the Gramercy Pond, he was that 
methodical, he took his house to pieces, marked 
each beam, and set it all up again on the new site. 
On another side from us was the farm of Jake 
Kip, alongside the East River. His house was a big 
double building, made of bricks brought from 
Holland. I was sorry when it burned down a little 
while later. Further over, just above us on the 
"Middle Road," as we called it, was Quaker Mur- 
ray's summer house, set on a high hill. The hill 
is called after him to this day. (That's where 
Captain Vanderbilt dug his wonderful tunnel for 
the railroad, which maybe I will write of later on.) 
Sunfish Pond lay just at the foot of this hill, between 
my place and Murray's. Peter Cooper had his 
glue factory on the shores of this pond, and made 
no end of money there. The pond was a great 
place for eels, and was sure to have some visitors 
from my tavern, whenever a drover would stay 
over a day or two — that is, in seasons when the fish- 



68 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

ing was good. The pond used to dry up in summer. 
That wasn't much inconvenience to me, because 
in summer I was too busy, anyhow, to go fishing. 
What fishing I did, I had to do in the cold season, 
when the "Bull's Head" wasn't so full of drovers. 

The whole region roundabout was filled with 
gardens and apple orchards. Peter Stuyvesant's pear 
tree (the one he brought from across the ocean) 
was still standing in my day, just below the "Bull's 
Head" by the side of the Boston Road. Along this 
road all the way into the city, since it widened out 
and was called the "Bowery," were the summer 
homes of rich New Yorkers. Over where Union 
Square now is, the old powder house used to stand. 
Above that, on the east side of the Bloomingdale 
Road, was a neighbour of mine, the "Buck's Horn" 
tavern. It had a sign of a buck's head and horns 
nailed onto a post by the side of the road, the house 
being set some distance back. There was a horse- 
shed running out to the road. It was a pretty 
good place; but it didn't hurt me much. I had 
my drovers' trade all to myself. The "Buck's 
Horn" on that side of me, and Cato's on the other 
side, were more for fashionable sports on their 
drives out from the city. 

There were several ferry lines running over to 
Long Island. One of them was an ingenious con- 
traption. It had paddle-wheels worked by six 
horses, which walked around a kind of windlass in 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 69 

the centre of the boat. The truck wagons and 
passengers would be placed on the deck along the 
two sides. Farmers and young work hands used 
to come into the city from Long Island by this ferry 
to market their crops. They all put up at the 
"BulFs Head." They were good customers of 
mine, these Long Island farm hands. Usually 
they were glad to get to the city, like a sailor to get 
to port. About all they thought of was to have a 
good time and see the sights, and would swap the 
farm produce they had fetched with them for board 
at my tavern. So I didn't have to buy much farm 
truck for my table. These Long Island farm 
hands were good-natured boys, and trustful; they 
left all the book-keeping to the host. Also, if they 
had any money, they gave it to me to take care 
of for them, while they were seeing the city. 

In fact, besides my work as a tavern-keeper, I 
was also at this time a kind of banker. Because, 
with a village growing up around the tavern, there 
was no other place where money could be kept. 
So a big safe was built into the wall of the " Bull's 
Head," at the rear of the tap-room. It wasn't 
much like the bank safes to-day. This one was 
just a big iron box with double doors, and opened 
with an ordinary house-key. Here I would put 
the money that the people wanted me to take care 
of. Sometimes I had so much of it on hand that I 
was able to take it down to the banking houses in 



70 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

the city and invest it there. Seeing that I kept the 
money for my guests, I didn't have the trouble 
which some hotel-keepers have to-day, of people 
jumping their tavern bill. When a man would 
hand me his money to keep, I would put it into an 
unsealed envelope — a kind of open wallet — and 
lock it away in the safe. Since I was the only one 
that had the key, I thus had the first call on that 
money. So, if a man got losing all the money he 
had and more too, gambling — there was a back 
room upstairs where "crack-loo" vx^as played, and 
sometimes drovers would keep at it all night and 
late into the next day — I would see to it when I 
handed him back his money on his leaving, that 
his bill to the tavern was paid out first. Also, if 
there was any dispute over the size of his bill, I 
was in position to carry my point. But we didn't 
have very many disputes of that sort. Drovers 
are a rough-and-ready, good-natured lot. When- 
ever they would make a trip to the city they would 
usually rake in a big walletful of profits, and so 
were not close in counting the pennies, when it 
came to settling their score at my tavern. 

On such holidays as "Evacuation Day," when the 
people celebrated the evacuation of the city by the 
British troops in the War of the Revolution, my 
house would be filled with young drovers and farm 
hands from the country, come in to see the sights. 
Sometimes I would have to put three in a bed, and 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 71 

also stow away some of them in the barn to sleep on 
the hay-mow. These celebrations were something 
worth seeing. There would be a parade in the 
morning by mounted and foot soldiers, artillery, 
the fire companies, the Tammany Society, target 
companies, and such like. At these times City 
Hall Park, which had a great iron fence around it, 
would be surrounded by booths where they sold 
roast pig, cider, egg-nog, and spruce beer. The 
day would close with a display of fireworks. At 
other times the young farm hands, "with money to 
burn and boots to coUop,'* as we say, could have 
good times at the Vauxhall Gardens, which were 
on the Bowery Road, just below Peter Cooper's 
grocery store. These gardens stretched clean over 
to what is now Broadway, on the site where Astor 
built his public library. They had a high wooden 
fence all around with a row of trees just inside. 
When you got in — the gate was on the Bowery — 
you found a beautiful garden with gravelled walks 
winding in and out between the flower beds. 
Around the sides, between the trees, were little 
booths for two or three people, with a table where 
ginger pop, cakes, baked pears swimming in molasses, 
and such-like delicacies were sold. In the centre 
of all was a pavilion for music and perfor- 
mances. 

I didn't encourage my guests to go to such 
places, but to stay up at the "Bull's Head" and 



72 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

spend their money there. They could find enough 
excitement at my place. For my tavern was one 
of the road-houses for the stage which went between 
Park Row, New York, and Harlem Village every 
day. The stage would reach us a little before nine 
in the morning, having left Harlem at seven o'clock. 
Arriving at Park Row at ten, it would start back 
in the afternoon at three, get to the *' Bull's Head" 
about four and arrive in Harlem at supper-time. 
Also, there would be everlasting dickerings in horse- 
flesh to furnish excitement and keep the blood 
stirring. For the "Bull's Head" was becoming 
the horse-exchange as well as the cattle exchange 
for New York City. Those two lines of trade go 
together, anyhow. Farmers would bring in their 
horses from the country to my tavern, and the city 
people would come there to look them over. In 
this way, from being a master hand in judging 
cattle, I pretty soon came to have great skill in 
horse-flesh also. It stood me in hand to be up in 
it. Sound animals find quick buyers. Skill in 
horse-flesh shows itself in selling an unsound animal. 
After a time I got so that I could turn a good penny 
in a horse deal. It is a curious thing how a broken- 
down plug can be doctored up and made into a 
fairly good-looking beast, for purposes of a trade or 
sale. If he's got holes back of his eyes through 
age, by working carefully you can prick a hole 
through and blow under the skin, and so puff the 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 73 

hollow up, smooth as the forehead of a two-year- 
old. Another good dodge to make an old horse look 
young, is to take a file and bishop his teeth; for a 
buyer is sure to look in the mouth the first thing. 
Or you can sometimes burn into a horse's teeth 
the marks which go with coltishness. With thick- 
winded animals a good dose of tar poured down 
the throat will often stop broken wind long enough 
to get the animal sold. Roarers are harder to fix. 
They give you away 'most every time. But even 
with this kind of beast there is a way, if you are 
on to it. Well-greased shot poured down the roarer's 
throat will ease off the roarings and make him — 
for an hour or two — quite a sound-winded animal. 
Besides all these, a favourite device, when a young 
ninny would come along that didn't know a horse- 
colt from a mare, was to offer him the animal for 
sale with the harness on. In such cases he usually 
thinks he is getting a bargain, because the harness 
seems thrown in. Whereas the truth is, you have 
tucked that on to the price, and meanwhile the 
harness is covering up some galled spots on the 
animal that otherwise would stand out like a sore 
thumb. In nine cases out of ten the young booby 
jumps at the bargain, like a hen at a goose- 
berry. 

For amusement at night there was no end of things 
going on. Of a summer's evening there were 
quoits, wrestling matches, and boxing bouts, out 



74 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

in the road in front of the tavern. While in the 
winter the guests would gather about the big fire- 
place in the tap-room, and smoke and chew while 
some one read the news out loud. Over in one 
corner was a table for checkers and backgammon. 
We didn't have spittoons in those days. We didn't 
need them; because I used to keep the floor of the 
tap-room good and clean by means of a layer of 
white sand from Rockaway. One newspaper would 
last a company for several evenings, because poli- 
tics ran high in those days, and discussions would 
last sometimes far into a winter's night. When 
Andrew Jackson's bank measure went through, 
there was such high feeling, and the parties were 
that bitter, my guests sometimes had fist-fights 
before the discussion was over. Another topic of 
discussion one time was a book by a Mr. Fenimore 
Cooper, called *'The Spy." It made no end of talk 
about the time of which I am now speaking. Because 
'most every other man you met had his own idea as 
to who was the real original of "The Spy" in the 
story. I never read books of any kind, and novels 
are a sinful kind of book, anyhow. But I couldn't 
help hearing a lot about this book, because every- 
body was talking about it. And when finally it 
came out that the original of "The Spy" was no 
other than the same Enoch Crosby that is in the 
Gilead burying ground up in Carmel, I was mighty 
interested. I had a whole lot to tell about the man 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 75 

to the people who came to the tavern. It would 
be a mercy to put up a tombstone to mark Crosby's 
grave. I almost believe I would do it myself. Only 
just now I am giving orders for a tombstone in my 
own family burying lot at Drewsclift — a big cross, 
carved out of solid granite. 



IX 



THESE talks of a winter's night around the 
fireplace in the "Bull's Head" tap-room, 
were great places for getting the news. 
Every man who had something new not only liked 
to tell it but was expected to. Because newspapers 
were not very numerous, and besides, there were 
lots of people who couldn't read it even when they 
had one. Accordingly news got around in great 
part by word of mouth. There was much excite- 
ment, I remember, over the news of the invention 
of brimstone matches — sticks of wood which would 
light themselves. For, one day, the news came to 
us that children had been seen down on the streets 
of New York City selling pine sticks about five 
inches long, with something on the end of each 
stick, so that by rubbing it the stick would break 
out into a blaze. It made a lot of stir when some 
of these pine shavings were actually shown in the 
tap-room one night, and it was seen that the back- 
log and flint-and-tinder were now out of date. 
But these loco-focos, as they were called, were 
rather expensive. So I didn't put them into the 
tavern right away. New-fangled things usually 

76 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 77 

cost more than they are worth; I was getting rich 
by saving the pennies, here one and there one, like 
a hen fills her crop, one grain at a time. So the fire 
tongs which hung by the fireplace for use by the 
guests to light their pipes with cinders from the 
fire, were not taken down. I never was much of 
a hand, anyhow, for new-fashioned things. 

Another piece of news which was beginning to 
be noised around, up in our tavern, was of a rich 
country out West beyond the Alleghanies. It was 
not often that we got a traveller from so far away 
as that. So when we did, we made him tell all 
he knew. In this way I heard tell hov/ there was 
a rich valley out in Ohio, called the Scioto Valley, 
where there was some of the finest beef cattle ever 
known. And these cattle could be bought out 
there for a song. A man by the name of Lewis 
Sanders, across the Ohio River in Kentucky, had 
imported three bulls and three heifers from England, 
of the short-horn variety. The Pattens (I think 
it was), from the South Fork, in Virginia, had also 
taken with them into that Western country some 
blooded stock, and had brought out the bull Pluto. 
A blooded short-horn cow, Venus, bulled by Pluto, 
had helped to people all the pastures throughout 
the Scioto region. This importing of foundation 
stocks from England was also helped along by 
General Van Rensselaer, up at Albany, who had 
just been bringing over from Europe the bull Wash- 



78 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

ington, and two short-horn heifers. The short-horns 
make one of the best beef breeds I have ever seen. 
Our American cattle v^ere mostly of the Devon, 
the Hereford, the Sussex and the Norfolk, of England; 
the Ayrshire and the Galloway, of Scotland; the 
Kerrys, of Ireland; the Alderney, Guernsey and 
Jersey breeds of the Channel Islands; with the 
Holsteins and Holstein-Friesians from Holland. 
All of these imported breeds, out in the rich Ohio 
and Kentucky reservations, had bred into an even 
finer beef cattle than on their native soil. Perhaps 
this was because of the rich grass and good quality 
of water. The short-horns were particularly sought 
out by us drovers, because they were beef breeds. 
In that day beeves were more important than dairy 
cattle. Beef is easier to transport than butter or 
cheese, because it will drive overland of itself. In 
that day we didn't have hardly any other means 
of transporting food-stuflF long distances, except to 
drive it on its own legs. Not that the short-horns 
are not good milkers, too; but they are especially 
good for butcher purposes. 

When I heard these stories about the Western 
lands, I became mighty interested, because the city 
of New York was growing so all-fired fast, it was 
hard to find enough beeves in the regions rounda- 
bout; so that the price of fit cattle was going higher 
and higher. I pondered the matter. I made up 
my mind. Calling Chamberlain to me one day — 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 79 

he had been my bartender at the "Bull's Head," 
and had married my daughter — I said to 
him: 

"Roswell," said I, *'you've got to take care of the 
place here for two or three months. I'm going 
out to Ohio to get a drove of cattle." He looked 
at me with eyes as big as saucers. 

"What's that .?" said he. 

"Just what I say," I answered. ''I'm going to 
bring some of those there critters from the West, 
right here into the New York market." 

" How in the world are you going to get them over 
the mountains.?" said he. "It's a wild-goose 
chase; they'll die if you drive them that far." 

"Leave that to me, son," said I, "leave that to 
me. I calculate to manage it fine as a fiddle." 

So I began to make my plans. First I went to 
Henry Astor, the butcher. He had been pretty 
well riled up against me once, because of some 
deals we had had together. I think I've wrote 
about it, somewhere in these papers. But he got 
over being mad after a time, and he and I had 
become good friends once more. He had made a 
peck of money as a butcher in the Fulton Market. 
So much, in fact, that he had retired and now was a 
kind of private banker. I went to him and got 
a loan of money to make the Western trip. I saw 
that it wouldn't pay to drive just a herd of ordinary 
size that distance. I had to do it on a big scale 



8o THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

or not at all. So I got the money from him — he 
made me give all-fired heavy security — and started 
out. I took a Mr. Robinson with me. He later 
went in with me in the banking business, when I 
became a Wall Street operator. He was an A 
No. I drover; I wanted that kind of a partner. 
I also took along our cow-dogs. A good cow-dog 
is not to be picked up everywheres. A drover 
learns, when he once gets a good animal of that 
type, to keep him. They are marvellous intelligent. 
Fve had cow-dogs that knew almost as much as I 
did about driving cattle or sheep. And they are 
faithful, too. They aren't spiggot-suckers, like 
some of your hired help. They will work for you 
night and day, and for pay only ask a few bones 
and a pan of milk at night. 

We started out in the stage coach, going by day's 
journeys through Jersey and Pennsylvania — Rob- 
inson, the dogs, and myself. The dogs were lots 
of company on the journey out. Much of the way 
through Pennsylvania the woods were thick; the 
dogs, following behind, would do some hunting 
on the side, and often brought in a rabbit, partridge, 
or such like game. It took over a week to get to Ohio. 
Out there I found that what I had heard tell about 
the richness of that Western country was gospel. 
The Scioto Valley was full of fat beef cattle which 
could be bought — for cash — at a price that would 
have made a farmer out East turn up his nose at the 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 8i 

offer. I had no trouble in getting together a drove 
of fine cattle and other stock — over two thousand 
head in all. Then we started towards home. I 
didn't know how long it was going to take to get 
back. Because this was pioneer work. No drove 
of cattle had ever been taken across the Alleghany 
Mountains before. So I was anxious to get started. 
Besides, I wanted to get them into the New York 
market before the heat of summer came on. 

We got along prosperous. The spring of the 
year is a good time for drover's work. In the first 
place, it is the right time to buy the cattle from the 
farmers. Then again, at this season the roads are 
soft, so as not to lame the animals. And besides, 
there is lots of water for drinking purposes, and 
plenty of pasture at night. In taking a big drove, 
the order of march is for the drover to ride ahead, 
sometimes several miles in advance, in order to pick 
out the road and to make arrangements for shelter- 
ing the animals at nightfall. In the present case 
that work fell to me. Another duty of mine was to 
find fit places for fording the rivers — either a natu- 
ral ford, or else some places where the animals 
could get down into the water safely, swim over, 
and get up again onto the bank opposite. Because 
those were early days in the Western country. The 
roads didn't have bridges at all places. And al- 
though there were ferries for the stage-coach, there 
wasn't any ferry big enough to take care of two 



82 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

thousand head of live stock. So we had to swim 
or ford the rivers. 

In driving a herd, the cattle are placed first. The 
dogs are trained to follow along just behind and 
alongside the cattle; because the sheep will come 
along behind of themselves, being timid. They 
don't need much tending. After the first day or 
two they get to know the cattle, and crowd in 
close behind them without any urging. It's curious, 
anyhow, to see how a drove of live stock will form 
itself into a herd after one or two days of marching. 
They seem to get acquainted with each other, they 
become a kind of a big family — the cows, the sheep, 
the dogs, the horses and the boys. They get intro- 
duced, so to speak, and hang together after that as 
though they had growed up on one farm. 

This flocking spirit was a great help on the journey. 
Because pretty soon after leaving Ohio and getting 
over into Pennsylvania, the country became so wild 
that, unless the animals had learned to herd together, 
they could easily have strayed and many would 
have been lost. In fact, the country became so 
much of a wilderness after a while that I wasn't 
always able to find cattle boys when I wanted 
them. On a long drive like this, you don't have 
cattle boys for the entire journey. Boys such as 
you hire for this kind of business are youngsters, 
and aren't allowed to go far from home. Therefore, 
we used to pick up a set of boys in the settlements 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW Ss 

we passed through, take them with us for a day's 
drive, and let them go back the next day, taking a 
new set in their place. But when we came to the 
mountains, the settlements were so scattered that 
sometimes we had to use the same set of boys for 
several days' journeys. The farmers along the road 
were very obliging. They seemed to know that 
this was the first of what would probably become 
a frequent custom, and so helped me along. Fodder 
and living were cheap out there, anyhow. At night- 
fall, when I would put up at a farmhouse and ask 
for accommodations for the drove, they would let 
me have it at a most reasonable figure. Some- 
times I paid these bills by leaving with the farmer 
the lambs or calves that had been dropped during 
that day's march. They were very trustful farmers 
out there. All I would need to do, sometimes, 
would be to say: 

** Neighbour, a couple of miles back, down by 
that ledge of rock, you'll find a ewe. She dropped 
a lamb yesterday, and we left her behind. Pretty 
good pair. Send your boy down and you can have 
them. We can't stop to take them with us. These 
new-born youngsters would delay our march." 

Two or three of that kind would sometimes pay 
our entire bill for the night's lodging. Besides, 
there were the cattle that got sick. A critter is 
often too sick to drive; when, if he can only have 
a little spell to rest up under a cattle-shed, he'll 



84 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

get well again and thrive. I helped pay my 
lodging bills by means of these sick critters which 
I left behind. Besides, the farmers were glad to 
have a drover come to take their own fatlings. Often 
I could make a swap, leaving some new-dropped 
calves or lambs, and take instead good healthy 
stock. 

There were places where we had to camp out 
at night. When wc got up into the Alleghany 
Mountains and started crossing that wilderness, 
there were sometimes no farm clearings for mile 
after mile. When nightfall would overtake us here, 
we would have to shift the best way we could. But 
you get used to sleeping out, after a while. Cut 
browse for the horses, let the critters pick a meal from 
the grass and leaves, wherever they can find it; and, 
with a blanket over some hemlock boughs, make 
a bed for yourself; in the morning you eat as though 
there was a wolf in your belly. 

Real wolves sometimes used to scare us. Wolves 
are very fond of veal, and at that time they had not 
yet been cleared out of the Western mountains. 
The states were trying their best to get rid of the 
pestersome varmints and used to offer a bounty 
for wolves' scalps. In fact, in some places the kil- 
ling of wolves was quite a business. A trapper 
could take a wolf's scalp to the justice of the peace 
and get a scalp certificate payable by the tax-gatherer 
when the next tax was gathered. But he didn't 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 85 

have to wait for the tax-gatherer, because these 
scalp certificates were good at 'most any store for 
merchandise. The country out there was so 
uncleared that there were still plenty of wolves in 
the mountains. In fact, some trappers were so 
abandoned, and the bounty on scalps so high — for 
a full-grown wolf, ^40, and for whelps, half that 
price — : that they would keep a she- wolf and her litter 
of whelps out in some secluded place in the moun- 
tains, in order to sell the scalps when they were 
full-grown. We met with this danger. But here 
again the herding spirit of my critters was a help. 
At night, when they would hear a pack of fifteen or 
twenty wolves a-yelping in the darkness, the cattle 
and sheep would crowd in together, shivering with 
fear. They wouldn't need any dogs or boys to 
round them up. In fact they would hug in so 
tight that they would well-nigh smother to death 
a weakling that might be in the middle of the herd. 
With all my care I lost a sight of critters before 
I got the drove through. There were those devoured 
by the wolves; and the stray-aways, because we 
couldn't stop to hunt up a lost steer, if he got too far 
from the drove. Also, some died of mud-fever on 
the legs and belly, due to sloppy roads. Then there 
were the accidents that happen on a journey through 
a wild country and across deep and sometimes swift 
rivers. Out of a drove of two thousand, we lost 
four or five hundred at least. And, do the best we 



86 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

could, we made slow time. Delays were all the 
time happening. A horse would get a wind-gall 
on the fetlock, or mv mare would get a swollen 
hock and would need to be coddled. Finally, 
after delays and losses, we got the drove into the 
New York market. 

And now I found that the trip was worth all the 
time and pains which it had cost. I had picked 
up the cattle dirt cheap in Ohio, and the price of 
young, fat critters in the New York market was 
so high that I cleared up over $30 on every head 
of cattle in the drove. 



X 



I HAD done so well on the Ohio trip that I 
followed it up v/ith several more. These 
times I went into Kentucky and even as far 
west as Illinois. Because now I knew that it could 
be done, and also more or less how to do it. There 
were accidents and delays. But New York was 
growing so fast and the price of butcher's meat was 
climbing at such a rate, that I found each time a fine 
profit when I had cleaned up the deal. I gave 
Astor back the money he had loaned me, and had 
enough besides to pay me for my trouble. 

Of course, these Western trips didn't take up all 
my time during these years. I paid attention, off 
and on, to running the "Bull's Head." I was 
also making short trips out around New York to 
pick up a herd of cattle here and there. There 
vv^ere some fine grazing bottoms out through Orange 
County. I got to know some of those southern 
counties of York State, as well as the near-by regions 
of Jersey and Pennsylvania. 

One day something happened to me whilst on a 
cattle trip I was taking up near the Harlem River, 
which had a great effect upon my life. It was my 

87 



88 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

remarkable escape from death by lightning, and my 
return to religion. For I had by this time — I grieve 
to state it — backslided once more. The life at 
the "BulFs Head" tavern was not very favourable 
to growth in grace. Besides, I was trotting about 
here and there. Churches were not very numerous, 
and my religious life got like the dead ashes in the 
fireplace, here and there perhaps a live spark, but 
the fire, for the most part, died out. I say, there 
were still some live sparks; because all during this 
time of my backslidden state I had periods when I 
was under conviction; which means that the spirit 
was still striving with my soul. But I was not 
yielding to these strivings of the spirit. I seemed 
to have become hardened. Now something was to 
happen which was to bring me back once more 
within the fold, never again to wander. 

I had driven up to Manhattanville, in the upper 
part of Manhattan Island, some miles from the 
Bull's Head village. I was in a gig, for I had a 
man with me. My visit was for the purpose of 
looking over some cattle which were on a farm up 
near that town. We reached the place, tied the 
gig at the gate, and went out into the field where 
the cattle were. Whilst I was looking them over 
I noticed a hard thunder-shower brewing, and hur- 
ried through the work. This I could do easily, 
because I had by this time become one of the best 
judges of critters to be met with anywheres. I 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 89 

could take in the parts of a steer with one sweep 
of my eye. As soon as the job was done we got 
back to the gig and started to drive to shelter before 
the storm should break. But it was providentially 
to be otherwise. We had hardly got the horse 
unhitched and started on our way, when the storm 
broke all around us. We tried to press on. Sud- 
denly we were blinded by a blaze of light brighter 
than a hundred suns at noonday. I guess it was 
followed by a terrific thunder-clap. But of this 
I am not sure, because, after that blaze of light, 
I don't remember anything. 

How long I lay unconscious I don't know, but it 
must have been some time. Because, when I came 
to, the rain had ceased and the storm had cleared 
away. I found that my companion had also been 
stunned and now was likewise coming out of the 
fit. When we got back some of our senses we looked 
around. There before us the horse lay, dead in 
the harness. It was by a miracle that my life had 
been spared. Then and there I gave myself once 
more to the Lord. As can be seen, it took a great 
deal of the grace of God to reach me. He had to 
try so many times before he finally got me landed 
safe and sound on his side. I promised that I 
would never backslide again. 

Not that I was ever very bad. Even in my back- 
slideful states I had never been a profane, bad man, 
and I had always held infidels in great horror. Over 



90 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

in Greenwich village, across Bloomingdale Road 
from the "Bull's Head," was the house where a 
man by the name of Tom Paine had lived. He 
had written a bad book called "The Age of Reason." 
To reach his village from my side of the island, I 
had to go through the potter's field, where public 
hangings used to be held. The gallows stood right 
in the middle of what is now Washington Square. 
On top of that gallows many a poor fellow used 
to stand, never to walk again — "jerked to Jesus" 
is what we called it back in those days. I don't 
see how any one, if he had any spark of grace about 
him, could go by that gallows and across that potter's 
field to the road where Paine's house was, without 
feeling a horror for bad men and infidels. 

I was glad, after I had fully recovered from the fit 
into which that stroke of lightning threw me, that 
I had gone through the experience, and had become 
at last soundly converted. Because, as it later 
turned out, the drover business was not to be my 
work all through life. Just as I was beginning 
middle life, I left it, said good-bye to my life at the 
"Bull's Head" tavern, and got into the steamboat 
business. An owner of steamboats ought to be 
religious and respectable-like. It may not be so 
bad for a drover to stay away from church, because 
his business is a rough-and-ready business, anyhow. 
People don't expect much of him. But a steam- 
boat proprietor is in a higher seat. A man of promi- 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 91 

nence is called upon to be godly in his walk and 
conversation; he should hold his head up — like a 
hen drinking water. There was Peter Cooper. He 
was godly. He was superintendent of the Sunday- 
school, there below the " BulFs Head," from which 
the Bowery Village Church started. He was a 
man that feared God and went to meeting on Sun- 
days. I was glad that I, too, was now on the Lord's 
side. And though I have suffered many losses 
since then, I am thankful to say that from that day 
to this I have never lost my religion. 



XI 



MY START into the steamboat business came 
about more or less haphazard. There was 
a Httle boat run between Peekskill and 
New York, by Jake Vanderbilt, a brother of Cor- 
neHus Vanderbilt. It was in connection with a 
boat designed to compete with this one of Vander- 
bilt's, that I made the start. 

This was back in the early days, when steam- 
boating on the Hudson River was just getting under 
way. The old sailing sloops were still in use, but 
were rapidly becoming back numbers. A sloop 
would sometimes take nine days in going from 
New York to Albany. When the Chancellor 
Livingston made the trip once in nineteen hours 
and a half," people thought it a miracle, and gave 
her the name. Skimmer of the River. But even 
the sloops were an improvement over the old stage- 
coach, because the fare by stage-coach from New 
York to Albany was ^8, and it never took less than 
two days and one night. Besides being slow, the 
sloops were also inconvenient; yes, even danger- 
some, because the winds on the Hudson are fluky, 
squalls rushing out, often without any warning, from 

92 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 93 

behind the headlands which hne both sides of the 
river. The boom of one of the old packet sloops 
was sometimes ninety feet long, and when it jibed 
unlooked-for, would sweep everything before it. 
There was Dunham, a merchant of New York City 
and of a considerable name. He was making the 
trip one day on a sloop down from Albany, when 
the sail jibed; the boom knocked him overboard 
like a nine-pin, and he was drowned. So when 
Fulton, with his partner, Livingston, showed that 
steam-engines could be put into a boat and would 
propel it even against wind and tide, it made a great 
change. 

For some years, however, the effect of the new 
invention was not noticeable. Because Fulton had 
got a grant from the Legislature giving to him and 
Livingston exclusive right to steamboat navigation 
on the tide waters of York State. This kept rival 
boats off. At last, some time before I started in, 
this monopoly had been done away. It came about 
through that famous suit of "Gibbons against 
Ogden." Thomas Gibbons was the owner of a 
steamboat, Bellona, which plied between New 
York and Elizabethtown, New Jersey. (He was 
the one who built that beautiful estate down at 
Bottle Hill, New Jersey, which I bought from his 
son, William Gibbons, and turned into the Drew 
Theological Seminary, years after.) Ogden had got 
from Fulton and Livingston a grant to carry on 



94 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

their monopoly. So, when Gibbons started in, 
Ogden had him arrested. Then Dan Webster, 
Gibbons's counsel, made that famous speech of his 
before the Supreme Court, which broke up the 
monopoly and opened the tide waters of all the 
states to free navigation. When Gibbons found 
himself free to run boats, he went ahead with lots 
of push. He got a young man by the name of 
Cornelius Vanderbilt, who had been running a 
sailing sloop between New York and Staten Island, 
to be captain of his boat, the Bellona. This ran 
from New York to Elizabethtown, where it shipped 
its passengers to the stage-coach, which carried 
them on to Philadelphia and the South. 

Vanderbilt did so well there that he became 
superintendent of the line, and used to go up to 
Bottle Hill to report to the owner concerning the 
boat. Gibbons by and by sold the boat to the 
Stevens Brothers, of Hoboken. Then young Cor- 
nelius Vanderbilt took up navigation on the Hudson. 
He started a small boat called the General Jacksoriy 
to run between New York and Peekskill, and put 
his brother Jake on as captain. 

Those early steamboats were funny things, com- 
pared with the great boats which are seen to-day, 
such as the Drew, and the Dean Richmond. 
Back in the early days they didn't have any pilot- 
house. The steersman was nothing more than the 
old sloop steersman; only, instead of working a 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 95 

tiller at the stern, he was placed up on top of the 
cabin, with a tiller wheel connecting to the rudder 
by a rope, and was exposed to the wind and weather. 
His station was directly over the engine. He sig- 
nalled to the engineer by tapping with a cane on 
the roof. One tap meant, "Go ahead"; two taps, 
"Backup." 

Well, as I started to say, the General 'Jackson 
one day blew up. That line between Peekskill and 
New York had interested me more or less, anyhow, 
because it had become the great way of getting back 
and forth between the city and my old home in 
Putnam County. But I hadn't thought of going 
into the business myself. I counted on buying and 
selling cattle all my life. But one day, soon after 
Jake Vanderbilt's boat, the General Jackson^ 
blew up, a friend of mine came and told me about 
a new steamboat, the Water Witch, which he was 
planning to run as a competitor with the Vanderbilt 
Brothers on the Peekskill route. 

He talked me into investing a thousand dollars 
in the boat. I had some money lying around loose. 
My cattle trips, together with what money I made 
from running the " Bull's Head," had been bringing 
me in good profits. I was glad to make a small 
investment in the steamboat business, even though 
it looked somewhat risky. 

And it was risky. The thing turned out a loss 
the very first season. As soon as we put our boat 



96 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

on, Captain Cornelius Vanderbilt, who was a spunky 
fellow, built another boat for the Peekskill route, 
which he called the Cinderella. We ran each 
other hard. The result was that my boat lost that 
season ^10,000. 

Cornelius met me one day on the wharf, just at 
the time when our boat was running behind like 
old Sambo. He was in high spirits. "You'll meddle 
with my business, will you?" said he, in a joking 
way. "See here, you drover, let me tell you some- 
thing. You don't know anything about running 
boats. You know a good deal about judging cattle. 
That's your line. Boats is my line. Water trans- 
portation is a trade all by itself. You don't under- 
stand it. Stick to your steers, Drew, stick to your 



steers." 



That got my dander up. I got iri with a man 
named Jim Smith. We two went up into Putnam 
and Westchester Counties and stirred things up 
good and lively. We told the people up there that 
they had been charged too much by Vanderbilt. 
We asked them to come in and put money into our 
line, because we were an independent company try- 
ing to take the side of the people against the monopoly 
which had been oppressing them. They flocked 
into our pen, because this Peekskill route was their 
main means of communication with New York 
City. It stood them in hand to build up a competing 
line. Now we were in shape for business. We had 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 97 

money — working capital. We began to slash the 
rates. We showed the Cinderella what business 
enterprise was. We kept at it until the fare was a 
shilling — twelve and a half cents a head — from 
Peekskill to the city. More than that, we showed 
the other boat that we were able to keep that game 
up just as long as they wanted it. 

When I met Captain Cornelius the next time, 
I served him with his own sauce. I said: "Hello, 
Captain; do you think now that I know anything 
about the steamboat business .?" 

"Drew,*' said he — Cornelius was a frank man 
to own up when he had made a mistake or had mis- 
judged anybody, "I don't think anything about 
it. I know you do." Cornelius was very nice to 
me after that, even sociable-like. He used to come 
around and call on me. We got to be good friends. 

In fact, we got so friendly that Smith and I sold 
out our boat to Vanderbilt and let him have control 
of the Peekskill route once more. We did this with- 
out letting the other fellows in our company know. 
We were afraid they might put some obstacle in the 
way if they knew it beforehand. As a matter of fact, 
when they heard of it they were as mad as a wet hen. 

" Because, Drew," said they, "we went in with you 
and Smith to break up the monopoly and in order 
to get decent transportation for our region. And 
now, after putting our hard cash into the thing 
and providing capital enough to bring the other 



98 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

side to their knees, you skunks up and sell us out — 
you make terms with the enemy behind our backs, 
and we lose what we put in." 

But I had other irons on the anvil. I didn't feel 
called upon to keep myself back, just in order to 
provide better transportation for Putnam County 
farmers. I had my own fortune to make — my own 
career to carve out. Any fellow, except he's a 
natural-born fool, will look out for number one first. 
There were bigger prizes to be got in the Hudson 
River steamboat business than the Peekskill route. 
It was these that I was after. The -Hudson River 
Association was running a line of boats from New 
York to Albany. Captain Vanderbilt had had a 
falling out with one of the directors of that asso- 
ciation, and had put two rival boats on that route 
so successfully that he had compelled them to buy 
him out; he agreeing to withdraw from the boat 
business on that route for ten years. This left the 
coast clear. If Vanderbilt, by running competi- 
tion boats, could scare them into buying him out at 
a good figure, I didn't see why I couldn't do the 
same. So I bought two boats, put them on the 
line to Albany, and ran them in competition with 
the River Association. This lasted for a year. At 
the end of that time it turned out as I had expected. 
The Association took me in with them on a pooling 
arrangement, my boats sharing the total earnings 
of the partnership. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 99 

This lasted a little while, and I was feeling big 
to be in with the company that was running so big 
a line of water transportation. By and by I wanted y 
to make still more money. So I hit upon a scheme. 
While I was still in the Hudson River Association, I 
put another boat on the route as a competitor. Only, 
I ran it under the name of another fellow, giving 
out that he was the owner, so as to keep my own 
part in the matter hid. Then I cut prices on that 
independent boat in such a way as to hurt the Asso- 
ciation like sixty. Whenever we would hold a 
directors' meeting of the Association, if they were 
not already talking about it, I would steer the con- 
versation around to the subject of this rival boat, 
and ask if something couldn't be done about it. 
Because, as I showed them, if we allowed that boat 
to run against us so freely, other fellows would be 
I encouraged also to put boats on, and we would soon 
be nowheres. Finally I got the directors to pass 
a resolution to buy up this troublesome rival. And 
I got them to appoint me the agent to go and see her 
owner with our proposition. 

"I think I can find him right away," said I. 
"His office is only a spit and a stride from 
here, so to speak." They said they would hold 
the meeting until I got back. So I left the room, 
went out, walked around the block, and came back 
with my report. 

"A penny more buys the whistle," said I. "Tve 



loo THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

seen the owner and he is willing to sell. Only our 
figure isn't quite high enough. He says he is making 
money hand over fist. Pretty soon he thinks he 
will be able to put another boat on. But he doesn't 
want to be mean. He is willing to sell if we do 
what he thinks reasonable. If we tack ^8,000 more 
onto the offer, he'll close with us." 

The directors debated. The boat was hurting 
us. Anybody could see that. I put a word in now 
and then, hinting how this pestersome competitor 
was probably in a position to hurt us still more, 
unless we got him out of the way right off. Finally 
we voted to give the ^8,000 more which the man 
had asked. I left them there in the meeting, went 
out, walked around the block again, came back 
and said the man had accepted; and if they would 
make out the papers then and there I would take 
them over to him and get the deed of sale. 

I saw from this incident that I could match my wits 
against most anybody's. Besides, this ;?8,ooo which 
I had turned into my pocket out of the company's 
funds was not only so much clear gain to me, but 
was so much clear loss to them. So now I became 
bold as a lion. I saw that this Hudson River route 
to Albany was making no end of money, and I wanted 
to own it, hook, line and sinker. So I picked a 
quarrel with one of my fellow-directors, and started 
out on a rival line of my own. My Westchester 
was a good starter in this fight. Still they had the 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW loi 

best of me, because their boat was the handsomer. 
So I bought the Bright Emerald for fc6,ooo, and 
ran her as a night boat to Albany. More than that, 
a Httle later that same year I bought the Rochester — 
paid ^50,000 for her. The Hudson River Asso- 
ciation hit back by buying the Swallow; and now 
the fight was on. We raced each other up and down 
the river, trying to beat the other fellow in rates, 
and boasting that each had the swiftest boat. Finally, 
it came to a race between the two. Both boats 
started at four o'clock one afternoon, from the dock 
near to the ferry which ran to Jersey City. This 
was in 1836. Up the river they ran, nip and tuck. 
The Swallow was so anxious to win that she 
speeded her engine beyond what it was built for. 
She got a little in the lead, but couldn't hold out. 
Just below Hudson her engine broke down. She 
had to stop a few minutes for repairs. This gave 
the Rochester the lead. By the time the Swal- 
low got under headway once more, my boat was 
so far in front that she couldn't overtake us. At 
Van Wies Point, a hundred and forty miles from 
New York, the race ended. My Rochester had 
won. This finished the fight. I had got the fare 
down so low that the Hudson River Association, 
weakened as they were by that loss of ^8,000 (which 
was just so much additional ammunition in my own 
magazine), gave in. I bought them out. And 
whereas the fare had been so low until then that I 



I02 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

myself couldn't have stood it very much longer, 
now that I was in control, I put the rate to Albany 
back to ;^3, and made enough money to pay me for 
all I had lost in the fight. 

Those were the days before the railroad. Since 
the Hudson is so wide and deep and slow a river, 
while both banks are rocky and high so as to make 
railroad engineering difficult, steamboat navigation 
between New York and Albany came many years 
before the railroad. Thus the traffic by water was 
large. Competition boats were springing up all 
the time, and we were everlastingly running each 
other. Steamboat rivalry was very high in those 
days. In making speed on our trips, we got so we 
didn't make full stops at the landings to let passengers 
off. When we would come near to a landing, we 
would put the passengers who were to stop off in 
a rowboat and towed it behind the steamboat. Then 
the steamboat would veer in towards the dock and 
slacken her speed a little. This would permit the 
steersman in the rowboat to sheer his boat along- 
side the dock, and as she went past the passengers 
had to scramble out and onto the dock. Some- 
times they landed on the dock, and sometimes in 
the water. One day, while trying to make this 
kind of a landing at Poughkeepsie, several passengers 
were drowned. The Legislature then passed a law 
putting a stop to these landings "on the fly." This 
craze for speed was bad, also, because it put the 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 103 

boilers under such pressure of steam that it wasn't 
always safe. In a close race engineers would tie 
down the safety valve, plug up the mercury pipe in 
the pressure gauge so the stuff wouldn't blow out, 
and then crowd on steam until the boiler plates 
would bulge out into bumps as big as a saucepan; 
and the boiler would be weaker for the remainder 
of its life. Besides that, the pilots would take a 
hand, and in racing with a rival boat would some- 
times in a narrow place in the river crowd the other 
boat onto the shoals or against a barge. 

Rate-cutting was so sharp that I had to try all 
kinds of schemes and dodges to keep my end up. 
A good scheme, I found, was to make different 
rates for alternate nights — fifty cents for one night, 
and $1.50 for the next night. This worked well. 
For people, hearing tell of the lower rates, would 
forget on which night the lower rate was given, and 
when they got to the wharf all packed up and ready 
to travel, were usually willing to pay the extra rate 
rather than go back and wait over another day. 
Sometimes we carried people from New York to 
Albany for two shillings. And one time, when a 
rival boat, the Wave, started up, our boats carried 
passengers free. The Wave wasn't very heavily 
financed. She lasted just three days. Sometimes 
we would even pay passengers a shilling to take our 
boat rather than the boat of the opposition line. 
But this wasn't so wasteful as it might seem, because 



104 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

after you've got a passenger aboard your boat and 
out in the middle of the river, he's at your mercy. 
For the first hour or two he thinks he's getting off 
fine. But by and by he gets hungry; besides, 
night is coming on, and he wants a place to sleep. 
Then we would stick on enough extra for meals 
and sleeping privilege, not only to make up what 
we had paid him for taking our boat, but also to 
pay us a profit besides. 

Since I was now the chief owner of the big line of 
steamboats on the river, I was powerful, and new 
competitors didn't have much chance. I felt that 
competition had to be put down with a strong hand. 
There was a man by the name of Hancox. He 
put on a small boat in opposition to our regular 
line. He called it the Napoleon. It was a poor 
boat. It didn't have much show, anyhow. But it 
wouldn't do to take any chances. His New York 
pier was further down than ours. So one morning 
in June our boat, the DeWitt Clinton, was waiting 
at her dock working her engines full stroke. When 
the Napoleon was a short distance from the 
lower side of the dock, the hawsers of the DeWitt 
Clinton were cut with a sharp axe. She sprung 
out under a full head of steam and hit the Napo- 
leon just forward of the wheel. You'd have thought 
it would have put that miserable little boat out of 
commission altogether. It didn't succeed as com- 
pletely as that. But it careened her over until her 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 105 

guard was under water, and gave her passengers 
a scare that they didn't forget for a long time. 

But there were still other ways of getting around a 
competitor; and we left no stone unturned. Hancox, 
who wasn't man enough to continue the fight on 
a business plane, began to squeal. He put out 
an advertisement like this: ' 

"TO THE PUBLIC: 

"It is the first time in my life that I have been 
forced to appeal directly to the public; but after 
having been persecuted as I have been for the last 
three days by one of the greatest monopolies of this 
country, my duty towards my family, as I owe them 
a support, makes it necessary that I should inform 
the public of my situation. 

"I purchased the steamboat Napoleon last 
winter, and associated with myself E. C. Corwin, 
and James Cochrane, who became equal partners 
with me in the boat, and the Articles of Co-partner- 
ship were drawn in such a manner that the boat 
was to run to Albany and nowhere else. Recently, 
the monopoly, after ascertaining that I was deter- 
mined not to remove the boat from this route has 
made extravagant offers, made in such a way that 
I was to be left alone; and consequently, as my 
means are small, I must, without doubt, be ruined 
and my family beggared. I now simply appeal 
to my friends to assist me in supporting the Napo- 
leon; for as long as she does not lose, no money 
that can be provided will prevent me from running. 



io6 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

But if she does, an injunction v/ill be immediately 
served on the boat. I can also state that E. C. 
Corwin has spurned their offers, even at a sacrifice 
of ^6,000. 

"J. W. Hancox." 

When a powerful company like mine is threatened 
with competitors on all sides, it does not pay to fool 
with a man, even though he is just a small toad in 
the puddle. One of the ways v\^e used to work it 
in order to get passengers and hurt an opposing 
line, was by employing runners to go to the other's 
dock and discourage passengers from going by that 
line. These runners used to be very enterprising 
fellows. One of their favourite dodges was to scare 
the passengers by saying that the boat they were 
about to take was unsafe, in fact was liable to blow 
up any minute. This dodge was particularly use- 
ful if any of the passengers were women. So this 
man Hancox, a few days later, squealed again, in 
another advertisement: 

"MONOPOLIES AND PERSECUTIONS 

"Are the people aware of the disgraceful manner 
in which the Hudson River monopoly persecutes 
the steamboat Napoleon and her owners, especi- 
ally by hiring the most abandoned and profligate 
wretches to run against her for passengers and mak- 
ing use of the most disgraceful language to prevent 
passengers from going on board of her .? They are 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 107 

guilty of the foulest lies and assertions. We had 
been, we thought, on the free waters of the United 
States, but if this is the manner in which the people 
are to be driven from their lawful and honourable 
pursuits, away then with our boasted freedom! 
"Are the people aware of the manner in which 
we have been driven from pillar to post for the 
last few days ? When they found they could not 
terrorize the owners of this boat, they said, * Let's 
crush them. They are poor and cannot stand 
against such monopolies as we are but a few days 
longer.' Will the people suffer this, or will they 
patronize the Napoleon and keep the fare at One 
Dollar, and thus sustain the poor in fair rates and 
honourable pursuits ? 

"Napoleon." 



XII 



IT WAS a caution, the shameful practices 
that some of the steamboat owners back 
in those days, in their ambition to get started 
and make headway against our company, adopted. 
An empty leech always sucks the hardest, and a 
new competitor is usually a fiercer one than a com- 
petitor of long standing. They used to make use 
of the public print in these steamboat rivalries. If 
companies are going to fight for traffic, let them 
fight it out in their own field, say I. There was 
the Altda, which was some time later put on the 
river to run against us of the established line. 
The way she boasted of her accomplishments and 
ran down all other boats, was a shame to see. She 
put out a card like this: 

''STEAMER ALIDA 

"The splendid day boat AUda is now the 
only day boat for passengers to depend upon. She 
makes all landings and arrives in Albany and Troy 
two hours ahead of the old boat, the Drew. 
The Drew is twelve years old, and her machinery 
is now so worn as to be nearly broken down. On 

io8 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 109 

Wednesday her passengers did not arrive in Albany 
until ten o'clock at night, too late for the cars, and 
this morning she was seen with but one engine at 
work. Those travelling should patronize the only 
opposition on the river, and more especially as she 
is far the fastest boat. Fare, .50." 

She put on such airs as a speedy boat that we 
couldn't stand it. So finally, when the Daniel 
Drew was built and had finished her first season, 
this advertisement was given as wide circulation as 
printer's type could give it: 

"The steamboat Daniel Drew, having dis- 
continued her trips on the day-route for the season, 
will for the purpose of gratifying the curiosity of 
certain individuals, hold herself in readiness until 
the 27th of the present month, to make a trial trip 
from New York to Albany with any other steamboat 
now built, for $1,000 or upwards, on one week's 
notice from this date, the boats to start from the 
foot of Thirtieth Street, North River, at eight a. m., 
to run with their usual tackle as used in their ordinary 
business. Any person or persons having a steamer that 
they think can beat her have an opportunity to make 
a profitable trip by calling on the subscriber." 

They didn't accept the offer. So we didn't 
have to run the race; but we were ready for them. 
After getting control of the Hudson River Asso- 
ciation, I got in with Isaac Newton. Up to then 
I had been in with a couple of men, Kelley and 
Richards. But I wanted to be in big company. 



no THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

Isaac Newton was a leading steamboat man of 
New York City. The kind of a proposition I made 
to him was this: We would start a line of steam- 
boats, and call it the ''People's Line." He would 
be the president and I the treasurer; and we would 
show the country what steamboating ought to be. 
He fell in with the idea and we formed the line. 
He owned the North American. That was the 
first steamboat to use blowers for an artificial blast 
in the furnace of the boilers run by an independent 
engine. He also owned the South American. 
These were good boats. But when we formed 
the "People's Line" we built a great new boat 
and called it the Isaac Newton. It was the first 
of the floating palaces that were soon to make the 
Hudson River famous throughout the world. It 
was three hundred feet long, and had berths for 500 
passengers. When she started off on her first trip 
the people crowded the wharf black to see her sail 
away. She was so big they thought she was too 
bulky to be pushed against the tide, and that she 
would either tip over, break down, or something 
else. But she sailed away fine as anything. And 
the people clapped their hands. Then we added 
the Knickerbocker. She was built for us by 
Smith & Dimon. She was a fine boat and had 
as many as twelve staterooms in the ladies' saloon. 
We took the engine for her out of the old DefVitt 
Clinton. 



I THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW iii 

Pretty soon we bought the " Oregon " of George 
Law — "Live Oak George" was the name he 
was known by in steamboat circles, he was that 
brisk and fearless. He was the one who offered 
to run his boat with only one wheel against the old 
Hendrick Hudson, for ^1,000, and wasn't taken 
up on it. The Oregon was a boat we wanted 
for our line; because Law had made her well-known. 
I in particular was anxious to get her, because she 
was a thorn in the side of Captain Vanderbilt. Van- 
derbilt and I never got along very well together. 
From the first we were more or less running each 
other. This Oregon had beat his boat, the 
Commodore Vanderbilt (he got to be known as 
"The Commodore" after a while, because he owned 
so many boats; but when I first met him, he was 
just plain "Captain") in that famous race from 
New York to Croton Point and return. It was 
a distance of 75 miles. Vanderbilt was all-fired 
set on winning that race. He made big prepara- 
tions. Got his boat in the best of trim. The 
people saw that he was going to win or bust. So 
everybody came out to see. It was almost as excit- 
ing as the bulletin boards in the city when they 
announced Scott's victory at Churubusco (because 
this was the time of the Mexican war, and there 
were a lot of New York boys in Scott's army). Well, 
they ran the race, and the Oregon won. They 
said the race might have turned out different, only 



112 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

Vanderbilt got worked up with excitement, and 
mixed in at the wrong moment. When his boat 
was about to turn the point up at the far end of 
the course, be grabbed the control of the thing away 
from the pilot. Wrong signals were given to the 
engineer. Instead of slowing up to make a turn, 
the boat went around at full speed. This lost her 
so much distance that the Oregon got the lead, 
kept it, and won the race. It was an awful blow 
to the Commodore's pride. In fact, it was because 
he felt so sore over it, that I wanted to own the 
boat that had beat him. So we took the Oregoriy^ 
and run it on our line. 

I have always suspicioned that this defeat was 
one of the things that disgusted the Commodore 
with the steamboat business, and made him 
leave it for other things. Because pretty soon 
he was giving all of his time to railroading, and 
didn't bother with steamboats much more. When 
railroads were first coming in, he had stuck up his 
nose at them. In talking with me about them, he 
would refer to them with a sneer, as *'them things 
that go on land." He was a lover of water craft, 
and didn't like to see anything come along that 
promised to hurt sail and steam boats. But when 
he lost that race to the Oregon it hurt his pride 
something terrible. It wasn't long after that before 
he changed his mind about railroads, and was after 
their shares lickety split. 



XIII 

I WAS now as busy as a dog licking a dish. 
For I was soon to be interested in those 
same railroad contraptions that Vanderbilt 
had gone into. I had lots of faith in him and his 
judgment, since he seemed to turn into money every- 
thing he put his hand to. And seeing I had done so 
well by following his lead into the steamboat business, 
I felt I couldn't make much mistake by following 
his lead once again, into the railroad business. 

The spread of railroads was now almost as 
rapid as the spread of steamboats had been a few 
years before. When once it was found that loco- 
motives could pull a train up a grade, it was a 
discovery. Because now railroads could be built 
even through hilly country. When iron rails came 
in and took the place of the old straps laid on beams 
of wood, which were everlastingly curling up into 
snake-heads and derailing the train, that was another 
big invention. By now it was seen that the railroad 
was not just a curious toy, but was a practical way 
of getting across the country; and every city and 
town wanted one. 

I didn't have to go out of my way to learn about 

"3 



114 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

this new invention. It crowded itself in on me. 
Along the entire length of my steamboat route from 
New York to Albany, one of these new-fangled things 
was a-building — a railroad was being cut through 
the steep rocks on the east shore of the river. By 
and by when it had got up from New York as 
far as Poughkeepsie, we ran a line of steamboats 
from Albany to Poughkeepsie, connecting with the 
train from New York. When the road was finished 
clean up to Albany, the railroad crowd were so 
boastful, they thought they were going to run steam- 
boats off the face of the earth. And they made no 
bones in saying so. President Boorman of this 
Hudson River road came to me just as soon as 
the last rail to Albany had been spiked down. 

"Drew," said he, "you might just as well hang 
up your fiddle. We've got you whipped. Own up. 
Your steamboats can't hold out against these things 
that go along the rails 30 miles an hour like a streak 
of lightning. Give up the boat business. Boats 
can't live on the Hudson River any longer. It won't 
pay you to fight." 

But I wasn't going to knuckle under. I told him, 
modest-like, that he did have a big thing there in 
those steam buggies of his. But I was going to stick 
to steamboating for a spell yet. And as to driving 
me ofF the river, I guessed I could take care of that. 

And I did, too. Even after the railroad got 
into full running, my boats carried just as many 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 115 

passengers, yes, even more than before. The rail- 
road got people used to travelling, and that helped 
all kinds of transportation. Besides, the great 
West was beginning to open up. There was Kansas, 
and the rush of people to get out there and save it 
from being a slave state. For John Brown and 
his Kansas doings got into the papers and helped 
to make the prairies known to the people. Lots 
of families, whether they cared about the darkey 
question or not, got the fever to go West. And 
what pleasanter way could there be than to sail up 
the Hudson to Albany, change there to an Erie 
Canal boat, out through the Mohawk valley to 
Buffalo, and then by water through the Great Lakes .? 
It was a sight cheaper to cart household goods 
that way than to pay railroad freight charges. 

But I haven't any cause to poke ridicule at rail- 
roads. They have proved mighty good friends to 
me and my fortunes. For it wasn't very long after 
this that I got into the business myself. It came 
about something like this: Transportation was 
stretching out from New York City not only in 
a northerly direction — but Boston and New York 
also wanted to be tied to each other by a fast route. 
Boston and New York were almost as closely knit 
together as Albany and New York. People and 
goods were going back and forth between them all 
the time. I knew this, because my "Bull's Head" 
tavern had been on the highway which led from 



ii6 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

New York City down east to Boston. But the 
stage-coach couldn't take care of the traffic now. 
So a line of steamboats started up from New York 
out through Long Island Sound. I and George 
Law — "Live Oak George" — established it. That 
bridged over a good part of the distance between 
the two cities. Then from Stonington a railroad 
was built the rest of the way to Boston. The traffic 
that went over this part-water-and-part-rail line, 
soon showed that it was to be a money-maker; that 
this was what the two cities had long been waiting 
for. As soon as I saw that, I wanted to have control 
of the railroad end of the route, as well as of the 
steamboat end. So Vanderbilt and I went in and 
bought enough shares of the " Boston and Stoning- 
ton Railroad" to control it. In fact, his family 
and I were pretty closely tied up together in those 
days. Because at this time, besides the partnership 
between him and me in this railroad, his brother 
Jake was with me in the Stonington Line of steam- 
boats. But my life hasn't had so much to do with 
Jake. He was never the pusher that his brother was. 
I was getting busy now in still another direction. 
Some time before this, since the best fishing is in 
deep waters, I had become a broker in Wall Street. 
By this time that section of New York City had 
gone through a wondrous change from what it had 
been in my first visits to the city. Wall Street wasn't 
any longer the market place of a big village. It 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 117 

was becoming a money centre. Banking houses 
were going up there, and an Exchange Room for 
trading in railroad and steamboat shares. Rail- 
roads now were spreading over the country like 
measles in a boarding school. There was need 
of some place where their shares could be bought 
and sold. Wall Street got to be that place. The 
big commercial men of the nation were in New 
York. They lived in the aristocratic section, on 
Pearl, Broad, Water, Beaver and Whitehall Streets. 
So it was natural that they should locate the Stock 
Exchange right in the centre of their part of the town, 
at the corner of Broad and Wall Streets. 

My banking enterprise up at the "Bull's Head" 
had got me more or less familiar with handling 
money. I had learned to find my way around in 
Wall Street's doings. So now I started in on 
my own account. The firm was "Drew, Robinson 
& Co." Robinson was a Nelson Robinson whom 
I had known up at Carmel. He had also been in 
the menagerie business — used to ride in the ring, 
all bespangled with shiny gold and silver lace. As 
soon as the fiddler was through (because in our 
old circus days they didn't have the big brass bands 
that circuses have now), the clowns would come 
leaping into the ring with a "Here we are again," 
and then Robinson and the rest of the circus per- 
formers would parade in and go through their 
monkey-shines. The "Co." in our firm name 



ii8 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

stood for Robert Weeks Kelly (the Weekses were 
also big people in the circus business up in Carmel). 
This Kelly, though, had made most of his money 
in the drover business. He was a shrewd, thrifty 
drover, and after Chamberlain died he became 
my son-in-law. So since we three knew each other 
well, we started together in the banking and broker 
business. 

With so many fish-poles going at once, I was 
kept tied close to business. Never was much of 
a fellow to take vacations, anyhow, and during 
these days I wouldn't have had a chance even if 
Td wanted to. There were some business men 
who kept drawing off their thoughts to politics and 
affairs of state. And if a fellow had been so 
minded, he could have taken up a deal of his time 
in talking about such things, because there was 
lots of excitement those days. There was the Mexi- 
can war. And then the Slave question down South 
got people all stirred up. But I was too busy to 
bother with such things. When a fellow is making 
money he gets busier every year. Because the more 
money he makes, the more investments he has to 
search out, in order to keep his money working. 
And the more investments he has, the more money 
he's going to make. Which means still more time 
in finding safe employment for it. And so on. 
Such far-off things as wars in Mexico, Missouri 
Compromises, and Slave Wars in Kansas, could 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 119 

not be allowed to come in and take my thoughts 
away from business. 

But I did now and then take time ofF to see the 
sights. For instance, there was the big celebration 
when Henry Clay visited the city. He came up to 
be present when the body of President John Quincy 
Adams was brought on to New York from Washing- 
ton. I had always regarded Clay as a great man. 
He had been the one to import Devons, Herefords 
and a lot of fine short-horns from England, and was 
helping to introduce these breeds into the Kentucky 
and Ohio lands. New England's favourite was 
the Devon. There was also the long-horn Texas 
cattle, which was being boasted about by the West- 
erners. But I never took much to those long-horns. 
They are but one remove above the buffalo, and 
are ungainly critters. The polled Durham of Ohio 
is far better for ordinary purposes, being quiet at 
the feeding rack and troughs. I kind of took to 
Henry Clay because he was so hot to get the farmers 
out in his section of the country to take up with 
high-grade breeds of cattle. On his farm in Ken- 
tucky they used to say that he had as fine a fat stock 
array as a man could ask to see. Those Western 
soils, anyhow, helped a whole lot in improving the 
breeds of live stock. There was the red hog of New 
Jersey, which formed the foundation for the large 
and heavy animals exported to the West Indies; 
when sent West it took on plumpness and became 



I20 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

that fine-grained meat which corn-growing countries 
always give to a healthy breed. The same thing 
happened with the white hog of Pennsylvania. 
Before he was sent to Northern Ohio, he was a 
tough and lanky animal; but out there he became 
fine and plump. Out West also they got to crossing 
the Berkshire and China breeds upon the common 
hog, and made something finer than had ever been 
seen before. Those Western States were great 
in improving the quality of butcher's meat. Henry 
Clay would, to my thinking, have made an A No. i 
President if he had ever been elected. 

But after a while we didn't have so much time 
over at our banking house of "Drew, Robinson 
& Co." for discussing breeds of cattle. We had 
our hands full in handling the business that began 
to come in. When you are loaning money, buying 
and selling railroad and steamboat shares, and such 
like, it keeps you going. If you don't look out, 
one slip will make an almighty loss. In fact our 
house made a slip at the start. One of our cus- 
tomers was a fellow we had known for some time. 
He owed us ^30,000. My partners were for extend- 
ing the loan. I was against it. They begged — 
talked about old friendship's sake, and such like. 
They got me to consent. Result — we lost the 
money. That taught me a lesson. Sentiment is 
all right up in the part of the city where your home 
is. But downtown. No. Down there the dog that 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 121 

snaps the quickest gets the bone. Friendship is very 
nice for a Sunday afternoon when you're sitting 
around the dinner table with your relations, talking 
about the sermon that morning. But nine o'clock 
Monday morning, notions should be brushed away like 
cobwebs from a machine. I never took any stock in a 
man who mixed up business with anything else. He 
can go into other things outside of business hours. 
But when he's in his office, he ought not to have a rela- 
tion in the world — and least of all a poor relation. 
I also saw from this incident that I was not a 
good hand for working along with other people, 
being better fitted to go it alone, so to speak. I 
saw, or perhaps kind of felt, that there was going 
to be lots of money in the stock-market business. 
So I began to turn my efforts more and more in that 
direction. And if my partners wouldn't go with 
me into speckilation, I could go without them. When 
you are doing just a banking business and nothing 
else, your returns may be safe, but they're almighty 
slow. The same with running a steamboat, or a 
railroad. But if you can buy up the shares of a 
company and sell them again inside of a year or 
two, you can often turn more money into your purse 
in a twelve-month than you can make by slow 
business profits in twelve years. For instance, there 
was the Lake Champlain Line of steamboats, which 
we controlled. We might have just settled down, 
and in a poky way run those boats and made our 



122 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

profits, slow and sure. But I was in for bigger 
things. So we sold that line to the Saratoga and 
Whitehall railroad, and I put the money in the 
form of cash for speckilating. My experiences had 
told me that I had skill in getting deals worked 
through, and that these would bring quicker gains 
than the slow-poke method of regular business. 
So I went into operations in the stock market. 

People have coupled my name along with Fisk 
and Gould. But it will be seen from what is here 
being set down that I was in advance of both of 
them. Here I was, an operator in Wall Street, 
when the Stock Exchange was new. I was a middle- 
aged man on the Street when Jim Fisk was a baby 
in the cradle, and before Jay Gould had seen the 
light of day. I might almost say I was their Wall 
Street parent. Many of their schemes and methods 
they learned from me. I was the pioneer. The 
way to manipulate stocks and work Wall Street 
dickers was well-nigh unknown when I first went 
into the business. I thought up many of the schemes 
out of my own brain. Those who came after had 
nothing to do but copy my ideas. Gould and Fisk — 
they were pupils of mine, both of them. I helped 
to make them. They were a pair of colts; I broke 
them in. It is easy now to lay out a campaign for 
working the market. But back in my early days, 
it wasn't so easy by a long shot. I had to invent 
ways of doing it. I had no guides to steer by. 



XIV 



I WAS getting now to be a power in the finan- 
cial market. Accordingly I wanted to live 
right in the city, and no longer out in the 
suburbs. I got a house on Bleecker Street, just 
where Mulberry Street runs into it — No. 52 
Bleecker, it was — the upper corner towards the 
Bowery. That section had formerly been the 
blackberry region for Manhattan Island. When I 
was at the ''Bull's Head," Bleecker Street was a lane 
lined with blackberry bushes, and in the berry 
season was a great place for picnics from far and 
near. It was also a good region for snipe shooting, 
and also for hunting rabbits. But by now you 
would hardly have recognized the place. For the 
city had grown up into it. The digging out of the 
stream just below into a canal (where Canal Street 
now runs) had helped to drain the frog-meadows 
up in the Bleecker Street section of the island. The 
Broad Way was pushed up to Union Square (as it 
was by and by called), and tacked onto the Bloom- 
ingdale Road which continued it up to the middle 
of the island kitty-corner. Where Grace Church 
now stands, there used to be an old high-peaked 

123 



124 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

barn; but that farm was now being cut up into 
building lots, and criss-crossed by city streets. 

The church I attended was on Mulberry Street, 
not far below my house. And now I set in to go 
to meeting every Sunday; I was also present on 
prayer- and class-meeting nights. I never lost my 
religion after this. You won't read in these papers 
of any more backslidings by Dan Drew. It took 
a good deal of the grace of God to reach me. But 
when finally he got me landed safe and sound within 
the fold, he held on to me. I have never slid back 
from that time to this. Of course, I have had 
my cold seasons. Every person has those. You 
can't live on a mountain all the time. Now and 
then I have found myself in the valley. But I have 
never failed to get back to the mountain-top experi- 
ences. 

We used to have glorious times in that old 
Mulberry Street Church. From the Bowery village 
by Peter Cooper's grocery store, where he was 
superintendent of the Sunday-school, the church 
moved first down to the north side of Seventh Street. 
But the revivals there were so powerful, the neigh- 
bours began to object. Some good saint would 
get the power and would be well-nigh out of his 
senses. Suddenly he would come to, and with 
mighty "hallelujahs" would tell of the things he 
had seen. I don't see why people should object 
to shouting Christians. I'm not a shouter myself. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 125 

But in a love feast I can get good and happy along 
with the rest. And I like it. If the saints on earth 
haven't any right to be happy, I should like to know 
who have. Come, let our joys be known, say I. 
We are travelling through Immanuers ground, 
to fairer worlds on high. Let those refuse to sing 
who never knew our Lord. The soul that knows 
its sins forgiven by the atoning Blood applied, and 
has had vouchsafed unto it the sprinkled conscience 
and the inward witness, let that man raise his Eben- 
ezer, say I, and shout his joys abroad. 

Well, as I started to say, some of the neighbours 
didn't just take to the revivals that used to be held 
in the old Seventh Street Church; and in those days 
the preacher would get up a revival every winter. 
I must confess that some of the meetings did last 
pretty late into the night. But so much the better. 
When a sinner has sung: "Show pity. Lord, oh. 
Lord, forgive; let a repenting rebel live!" and sung 
it over and over until his knees are well-nigh cramped 
beneath him, and then when he is ready to despair, 
for seeing himself slipping down the hill into the 
Devil's lap, if the burden all to once rolls off from 
him and he gets through and comes out onto the 
Hallelujah side, that man isn't going to let that 
meeting come to an end very soon. He is going 
to relate his experiences. He is going to tell what 
the Lord has done for him, and keep on telling. 
And he is going to wrestle with other sinners at 



126 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

the mercy seat until he gets them through also. 
And if it's twelve o'clock midnight before the meeting 
is over, he isn't going to care. 

But the neighbours did. They said the church 
v^as a bad thing for property values. So they raised 
some money and bought two lots near Third Avenue. 
These they gave to the trustees of the church on 
condition that they move the meeting-house over 
there. The trustees consented and the building 
was put up. One day Zekiel Moore, a merchant 
and member of the Seventh Street Church, saw a 
vacant plot on Mulberry Street near Bleecker, and 
got the idea of building a church there. So Jake 
Bunting called a meeting at his house on Crosby 
Street, and the thing was started. There were 
great doings when our new meeting-house was finally 
dedicated. Dr. Bangs preached the sermon that 
afternoon. How some things stand out in a person's 
memory! It was from Luke I, 79. The sermon 
was meant mostly for us who were saved. This 
was as it should be. A dedication sermon is to the 
saints rather than to the sinners. 

The preacher described the darkness out of which 
we had been delivered. I could almost feel the 
heat of the flames as he pictured the thing, and 
showed how we had been snatched as a brand from 
the burning. Although I had been in the back- 
sliding class often and long, I was no longer in that 
state of alienation nor appointed unto wrath. My 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 127 

delight was now in witnessing and testimonies. I 
could with joy gaze into the lower depths, which 
once used to send shivers and goose-flesh all over me. 

"Waken and mourn, ye heirs of hell. 
Let stubborn sinners fear; 
You must be driven from earth, to dwell 
A long forever there. 

See how the pit gapes wide for you, 
And flashes in your face. 
And thou, my soul, look downwards too. 
And sing recovering grace!" 

There was a time when that sort of thing would 
have made me hang onto the seat in front to keep 
from slipping down into the pit. But now my feet 
had been placed upon the rock. I was no longer 
building on the sands, but on solid foundations. 
Hay and wheat and stubble — the fire will consume 
these. But the rock stands, when the nearer waters 
roll. 

These thoughts may seem poky and dull to some. 
That is because they have never experienced religion. 
It was in this Mulberry Street Church and in the 
big marble church on Fourth Avenue, which a little 
later I was instrumental in building, that I spent a 
good share of my time out of business hours. When 
a man goes to prayer meeting and class meeting 
two nights of the week, and to church twice on Sun- 



128 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

day, and on week-days works at his office from 
morning till night, his Hfe is made up of about two 
things — work and worship. 

In order to know what a man really is, you've 
got to see him now and then away from his office. 
Business isn't the whole of life. Business shows 
one side of a man. His church and home life show 
the other side. That is where a good many of the 
revilings against me have come from. They have 
come from people who have seen me only at business. 
Everybody knows that business is one thing, and a 
man's church and home life another thing. I have 
had to sharpen my wits — count the pennies close — 
in order to make money. But there has been some- 
thing to Dan Drew besides just getting rich, and I 
want people to know what this other something is. 
Unless a business man is also a converted man, 
with the witness of the spirit within him, he is like 
a hog under an apple tree — so busy crunching 
the fruit that he doesn't have time to look up to 
where the fruit comes from. It isn't fair to judge 
a man by his down-town life alone. Business, 
anyhow, slobbers a fellow up. It's like teaching a calf 
to drink out of a pail — you're sure to get splashed 
and dirty. Business is a scramble for the cash. 
Nobody looks for manners around the meal tub. 



XV 



RAILROADS were now all the rage. And 
at about this time the greatest railroad 
in the world, for its day, was finished, 
"The New York & Lake Erie." It was called, 
for short, the "Erie." I was soon to make a bag 
of money out of this Erie Road. So I came to 
know a good deal about it. The road had been 
a long time a-building. Young Pierson, of Ramapo, 
well-nigh lost his fortune in the job. If it hadn't 
been for English investors coming forward and buy- 
ing the stock at a time when Americans had got 
sick of the thing, it would have fallen flat as a pancake 
and there wouldn't have been any Erie Road at 
all. Pierson had worked like everything to get 
the Legislature to give a subsidy. In this he was 
backed by the southern tier of counties in York 
State. Those counties for a long time had felt sore 
that the Erie Canal had not been built through 
their section rather than through the Mohawk section. 
And they put up such a howl that the Legislature 
had either to give them a canal of their own, or else 
build a railroad. Pierson — he was the son of 
old Judge Pierson of Ramapo — pushed the thing 

129 



I30 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

and got a grant of money from the Legislature. 
But this hadn't carried the road to completion. 
It hung fire. It was built only half-way to Lake 
Erie — was like a bridge thrown half-way across, 
about as much use as no bridge at all. The Legis- 
lature wouldn't grant any more money. Also Amer- 
ican capital got cold feet. The thing looked bad. 
It was at this time that English investors came to 
the rescue. They put up their good money, bought 
the road's paper, helped the thing out. So that 
by and by a pair of rails was laid clean through to 
Dunkirk. 

Then there was a great jubilee. All the people 
in that part of the state joined in the "Hurrah." 
They had been jealous of the Erie Canal section of 
York State. Now they could hold their heads up 
with any. Because, what is a canal with its poky 
old boats, compared to a railroad 500 miles long, 
with trains scooting over the rails like a streak of 
lightning! Thirty miles an hour now wasn't con- 
sidered remarkable; soon the trains could keep up 
that speed the whole distance. To celebrate the 
completion of the road two trains of cars ran over 
the route. There were many invited guests — the 
President, Dan Webster, and lots of the other big 
wigs. It was in the spring of the year. When 
finally they got to Dunkirk at Lake Erie, they had 
a big barbecue. Under a tent were victuals for 
well-nigh a thousand people. Whole roast pigs 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 131 

and oxen were served on the tables. There was a 
great sign hung up, with poetry on it: 

"'Tis done, 'tis done, the mighty chain, 
That binds Lake Erie to the main." 

The road first along ran to Piermont on the Hud- 
son. They hadn't been able to get through the 
Bergen Hill, which lay just back of Jersey City. 
So had to go up to Piermont as the next best place 
of reaching the Hudson. Washington Irving' s 
country seat was on the river on the opposite bank. 
He could look over and see the trains come down 
to the shore; for there was a pier a mile long that 
ran out into the water from Piermont. It had to 
be that long, because the Hudson is shallow at that 
point. (Right where Washington Irving had his 
estate was where the three patriot soldiers got 
Major Andre when he was trying to escape from 
West Point, during the treason of Benedict Arnold.) 
That place, Piermont, had formerly been a fishing 
village called Tappan Slote. The place had sup- 
ported three fishing sloops. But now three steam- 
boats took the place of the sloops. Great shops 
and engine-houses were built, and a switch-yard. 
Piermont — a long pier running right into the 
mountain back on the shore; I suppose that's where 
the village got its new name — became a boom town. 

This plan of having the eastern terminal of the 



132 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

road at Piermont had its drawbacks. It was twenty- 
four miles up the river from New York City. Steam- 
boats could take care of the travel all right in summer. 
But in winter it was a different matter. In that day 
there wasn't so much traffic in New York Bay and 
on the North River as there is now. So that in a 
cold winter the floating ice, not having anything 
to break it up, used to jam, and freeze solid from 
shore to shore. The Erie Railroad boats to Piermont 
in winter had to have a channel cut for them through 
the ice. Sometimes they had hard work keeping 
even this open. The channel would sometimes 
get so narrow that the boat could just skimp through. 
Skaters on the ice would come alongside and jump 
onto the guard-rail of the steamboat, or onto the 
false prow. 

However, in spite of this difficulty the railroad 
did well almost from the start. For one thing, 
the people living alongside were so proud of the 
thing that they pitched in and helped it in every 
way they could. They looked upon the Erie Road 
as a patriotic achievement. Because people as 
far away as Europe were talking about this wonder- 
ful engineering feat that America had put through. 
More than that, the road ran through a prosperous 
region. From Rockland to Chautauqua, there were 
rich farm lands on both sides. It tapped the 
Delaware and Hudson Canal at Port Jervis. Branch 
lines quickly spread out on both sides and served 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 133 

as feeders. The grazing lands of Sullivan, Dela- 
ware and Broome Counties now had a way of getting 
their stuff to market. The road paid good dividends. 
I had kept my eye on the road while it was a-build- 
ing. Because I knew something of the country it 
went through. My Western cattle trips had made 
me acquainted with Ohio and the great region west, 
which this road was now to lead into. And my 
shorter drover trips out from New York had made 
me more or less at home in those counties that the 
Erie Road passed through. I knew that that south- 
ern York State country was a rich one. It had been 
peopled for a long time back. During the Revolu- 
tion those southern counties had been an important 
section of the state. The Tuxedo Gap through 
the Ramapo Mountains was, in General George 
Washington's day, the only road between New York 
and the western counties. (I knew a whole lot 
about that Ramapo section. When a man travels 
through a country on horseback, with a drove of 
three or four hundred critters a-plodding along 
behind him, and pitching camp at nightfall where- 
ever he happens to be, he picks up a sight more 
information about a locality than you can get out 
of books.) That is why General George Wash- 
ington fortified the Tuxedo Gap when he was looking 
for the red-coats to advance from New York City 
and New Jersey. He knew that that was the only 
pass by which they could get through, and he wanted 



134 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

to keep them away from his army which was up in 
the Highlands. Back in my drover days these 
fortifications were still standing. They ran out from 
the south side of the mountain, a mile and a half 
up from Major SuflFern's mansion. (That mansion 
is where General George Washington made his 
headquarters when his army was camped there.) 
In this gap, and on top of the high "torn" — that's 
a Dutch word for steeple — before the railroad 
came with its smoke and dust, you could look well- 
nigh into New York Harbour. They used to tell 
the story that General George Washington used to 
climb to the top of that hill and watch for the 
British through a spy-glass. Just a little beyond 
this, a mile or so to the west, is where our droves 
of cattle, and in fact all the traffic which went through 
the gap, used to cross the Ramapo River. The rail- 
road when it came built its bridge right alongside 
the old turnpike bridge. Back in my drover days. 
Judge Pierson had his iron works there for rolling and 
splitting iron, and making cut nails. The river 
here in this gap furnished fine water power. And 
the mountains round about are so full of iron ore 
that in a lightning storm you could hardly get away 
from the fiery bolts, no matter which way you ran. 
To be there in a lightning storm would make a 
sinful man wish he had listened to what the preacher 
said and had made himself thunder-proof against 
the wrath of God. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW ^ 135 

Why, to show you the richness of that country, 
long before the railroad was even thought of, out 
beyond Pierson's Iron Works Major Jake Sloat 
had put up a big cotton mill. It was in a Dutch 
settlement. Sloat was very anxious to keep a good 
tone in his settlement. He had a grocery and 
general store, and wouldn't allow a smitch of rum 
or intoxicating drink to be sold anywhere in the 
place. The mill was in a beautiful grove. Dutch 
girls worked in the mill. Their homes were back 
in the woods all around, here one and there one, 
very cosy little cottages. It was a God-fearing 
people. Judge Pierson also kept liquor out of his 
village. So that all the way through that section 
it was a poor place for drovers to stop off in. Because, 
since they weren't allowed to sell liquor, no one 
would put up a tavern. They figured that without 
a tap-room, a tavern wouldn't pay expenses. So 
we drovers would plan to go through that section 
in the daytime, and reach some tavern further on. 
Because, if we landed there at night, it was a case 
of sleeping out under the open sky. 

Not far from the Tuxedo Gap, up in the mountains, 
was a woodchopper's settlement called Johnson- 
town. They made a living by burning charcoal, 
which they carried down to the Ramapo River for 
use in the iron furnaces. They also whittled out 
wooden spoons and chopping bowls, which they 
sold. They were a good people. But they didn't 



136 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

know very much about the goings on in the great 
world outside. When the railroad trains began to 
come through this Tuxedo Gap, those woodsmen 
heard the screech of the engine as it went through 
the woods — it was pretty nigh all woods in those 
days, so that a squirrel could almost go through 
four counties from tree-top to tree-top, without 
touching ground — they thought it was the scream 
of some new kind of wild animal; for the woods 
then were infested with panther and other varmints. 
So one night they gathered with axes and pitchforks 
in that part of the woods where the screeching had 
been heard night after night, to make an ambuscade 
for the beast. When the engine finally came rushing 
through the woods and the darkness, with a long 
tail of light streaming behind, those mountaineers 
rushed away scared. This new kind of varmint was 
too much. 

The Monroe Iron Furnace, about three miles 
beyond Sloat's Burg, was where Parrott made his 
guns, which became famous in the Civil War. There 
was an iron mine six miles up from there in the 
mountain, whose ore was said to be the sovereignest 
in all the country for the making of cannon. (That's 
why the Parrott gun became so noted.) It was 
great iron, also, for making nails; and some distance 
from there, at the South Fields, back in my drover 
days, was a flourishing nail works. Only smart 
and handy chaps were employed in those works, 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 137 

because a nailer had to work like sixty. A nail is 
so small that, to compete with the maker of wooden 
pins, a nailer had to get a certain number of nails 
made out of every heating of the rod. Even as it 
was, and work as hard as tliey could, they couldn't 
force wooden nails from the market altogether. 
Many of the pin-makers had got to be so skilled in 
making wooden nails that they held their own even 
when iron nails came in. But wooden pins were 
not all of uniform size; they used to cause much 
profanity on the part of house and barn builders. 
So it was a good thing, I have always thought, 
when iron nails finally took the place of wooden 
pins altogether. 

This particular section was not good for drovers. 
There was good fishing in the ponds. Ramapo, 
they used to say, was an Indian name, meaning 
"place of round ponds." And these bits of water 
were scattered all through the mountains on both 
sides of the Tuxedo Gap. So that, if a fellow 
could only have stopped over for a spell, he could 
have had good sport with a fish-pole. But the 
region sent only a few cattle to market, and these 
were for the most part stringy things, mere bags 
of bones. The woods were too thick and the moun- 
tains too wild for grazing. But when you got out 
a little further west, beyond Tuxedo Gap, you came 
out by Centreville. (This was changed to "Turner's" 
when the railroad came, because old man Turner 



138 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

kept a tavern at that place right close to the tracks, 
with a flourishing grist mill back of it. He used to 
feed the travellers; Turner's Restaurant got to be 
famous the whole length of the Erie Railroad because 
of its fine victuals.) Here you came into a region 
flowing with milk and butter. Some of the finest 
short-horn beeves that ever came to the New York 
market were picked up in this valley. The pas- 
turing was of good quality in summer, and in winter 
the fodder was plentiful. From here all the way 
along the route of the Erie, it was a great breeding 
section. It made big money by selling critters to 
us drovers, long before the railroad came. 



XVI 



YES, I knew something of the richness of 
that country through which the Erie 
railroad was being built. So, when it 
was at last finished, I hankered to get it into my 
hands. I felt that I could make money out of 
it. When you own the hen, you own the eggs 
also. And when you control a railroad — that's the 
same as owning it — you own what the road makes. 
I went about it like this. There was by this 
time a chain of railroads through the Mohawk 
Valley and the central part of York State. They 
coupled together, a little later, to form the *'New 
York Central." This chain of railroads out of 
Albany could be made, in connection with my 
steamboats on the Hudson, a bad competitor of 
the Erie for the through western traffic. With my 
Hudson River boats I was in a position to favour 
this Central Line with rates on the through traffic 
and so make myself an enemy of the Erie whom it 
would stand them in hand to make terms with. To 
make doubly sure, I set my trap at the other end 
also. Out on Lake Erie was a line of boats con- 
necting with the Erie Railroad and forming its 

139 



I40 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

route to the far West. Softly I bought a controlHng 
interest in this steamboat Kne. This gave me 
power over the Erie in that direction. I took still 
a third step. Out in western New York there was 
a line of railroad connecting both the Central Line 
and the Erie. It was known as the " Buffalo and 
State Line Railroad." Without letting anybody 
know what I was doing, I got enough stock in this 
dinkey little road to control it. 

Now my trap was set. I let it be known that I 
was planning to give the railroad which ran through 
central New York a better through rate, both on 
the Hudson River steamboats and on the " Buffalo 
and State Line" connection with the West, than 
the Erie could meet. I also hinted to the Erie 
Company that it would very soon have to give me 
a bigger slice of the through rate, for the use of my 
Lake Erie line of steamers. 

The Erie people got interested in me then almighty 
quick. For I had their line bottled up, corked at 
both ends good and tight. "What do you mean," 
they asked, "by giving that New York Central 
crowd better rates than you do us .^" 

I answered, sort of cool-like, that I hadn't thought 
the Erie would care very much. They had never 
seemed to give much thought to Dan Drew one way 
or the other. I said I was kind of surprised that 
they even knew I was living. 

"What do you mean by that.^" they asked. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 141 

"Is it that you v/ant to be a director of the 
Erie?" 

I hemmed and hawed, chewed my tobacco for a 
spell, and then said I'd think their offer over. Some 
time before the Erie's annual meeting I let it be 
known that, inasmuch as they had asked me to take 
a position as director, I might see my way clear to 
accept if I was elected. I put it kind of mild, like 
that. But I was just itching to get in on the inside. 
Like a dog around hot porridge, there was something 
good there, if I could only get to it. I could hardly 
wait. Finally the election took place, and they sent 
me word that I had been elected a member of the 
Board of Directors. I was at last on the 
inside. 

But even this wasn't enough. To be a director 
is something. It gives you Wall Street tips ahead 
of the people who are on the outside. But I wanted 
something more (I always was ambitious, never con- 
tented, but always pushing on to something better). 
So I now took steps to get the road completely under 
my thumb. In order to do this, I saw I'd have to get 
her to borrow money of me. That's the sure way. 
When a man is in your debt, he's your slave. You 
own him body and breeches. You are the cat, 
he is the mouse. You let him have a little space 
to run about in, and he thinks he's going to get 
away. But you are only playing with him. You 
can stick out your paw and claw him across the back 



142 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

any time you wish. So I set about to make them 
borrow money, and to borrow it of me. 

This was not so easy to do as one might think. 
Because the Company was prosperous. It didn't 
need any more money. The road was so wonder- 
ful an achievement that it was almost a mark of 
patriotism for the people in that region to patronize 
it and help it along. It was not only a York 
State thing, it was an American institution — the 
first great trunk-line railroad the world had ever 
seen. So money flowed in from all sides. Con- 
ductors, engineers, brakemen, track-walkers, proud 
to be working for such a fine and great enterprise, 
were honest and faithful. No wonder the road 
paid dividends. This was during the panic of '57 
that I set about to get control of the road. Money 
everywhere else was tight — so much suffering, 
in fact, that the New York Common Council put 
labourers to work grading the new Central Park, 
in order to relieve the distress. And yet, with 
stocks everywhere else slumping, banks failing, 
great commercial houses toppling on every side, 
that very year the young and thrifty Erie Railroad 
paid no less than eight per cent, dividends. If a 
road could do that so soon after it was built and while 
it was getting onto its legs, so to speak, what wouldn't 
it do when it had settled down to real business ? 
Yes, it did look like a hopeless task, to make a road 
that was as flourishing as this borrow money of me. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 143 

But I was like a steer that smells the clover; he will 
either find a hole through the line fence, or make one. 

This Erie enterprise in my life, let me say right 
here, got a lot of people to disliking me. " Because,'' 
they said, "before Dan Drew got hold of it, the 
Erie was one of the best and most thriving proper- 
ties in the country — America's pride — longest 
and finest railroad in the world — the bringer 
of blessings to all the southern tier of counties 
in the Empire State. Whereas, when he got 
through with it," so these enemies of mine said, 
"its treasury had been squeezed dry, the road 
brought to bankruptcy, its rolling stock run down, 
and the road-bed become a death trap and a taker 
of human life. And the evil didn't stop with him," 
so they went on; "for when this Dan Drew finally 
let go his clutch on the finances of the road, he had 
set at work a chain of influences which were to make 
the road a by-word, and set back the development of a 
third part of York State for the space of fifty years." 

Oh, they ripped it onto me good and hard. I 
suppose I have put up with such abuse during my 
life as have few other men that ever lived. But, 
being of a peaceable disposition, I have forgiven 
these enemies of mine all the hard things they said. 
I always turn the other cheek, as it were. A quiet 
cow can get along with short horns; and if, when 
enemies revile you and say all manner of evil against 
you, you don't answer back, but just go on your 



144 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

own peaceable way, it sort of takes all the spunk out 
of them; by and by they get over being mad, 
and stop their mud-throwing. Anyhow, I never did 
care pea-shucks what people were saying about me. 
So many have taken a kick at me that if I were 
tender I suppose Vd be so sore by this time that I 
couldn't sit down; but my saddle leather, so to 
speak, has become tough, so that I don't mind their 
kicks any more. 

The truth is, I was hard pushed for funds when 
I started in on this Erie business. My fortune had 
stopped growing. And no matter how much a man 
has, when he comes to a point where he stops get- 
ting richer, he is scared. The panic of '57 had cut 
off a number of my dividends. I was doing nothing 
more than holding my own. I wasn't making any 
progress. Each night didn't see me any further 
along towards becoming a rich man than the morn- 
ing. I wasn't getting ahead. Every man of spirit 
wants to be getting ahead. 

Besides, with this panic year of which I'm now 
writing, a new state of affairs came about in financial 
circles. The panic was known as the "Western 
Blizzard." It put old fogyism out of date forever- 
more. The men who conducted business in the 
old-fashioned, slow-poke method — the think-of- 
the-other-fellow method — were swept away by 
this panic, or at least were so crippled up that they 
didn't figure much in the world of affairs afterwards. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 145 

A new generation of men came in — a more pushful 
set. I was one of them. We were men now who 
went ahead. We did things. We didn^t split 
hairs about trifles. Anyhow, men of thin skin, with 
a conscience all the time full of prickles, are out of 
place in business dickerings. A prickly conscience 
would be like a white silk apron for a blacksmith. 
Sometimes youVe got to get your hands dirtv, but 
that doesn't mean that the money you make is 
also dirty. Black hens can lay white eggs. Take 
that blacksmith. During the day he gets all grimed 
up. Then at night he washes, and now is as clean 
as anything. And his money is clean, too. What 
better kind of man is there than a blacksmith : It 
isn't how you get your money but what you do with 
it, that counts. 

Well, as I started to say, I wanted to get the Erie 
Railroad in my debt. I went about it in this fashion : 
The road, as I guess I've wrote, went to Piermont, 
twenty-four miles up the Hudson. They would like 
to have come straight down to Jersey City. It would 
have saved that twenty-four mile trip by water, 
which was so bothersome in winter. But there, 
square across the path, was Bergen Hill. The 
trouble with this hill was, it wasn't a gradual rise 
that a railroad grade could work up to and over by 
slow degrees. The Hackensack meadows came 
smack up to it on one side, and the Hudson shore 
smack up on the other, with this hill between, 



146 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

stiff as a line fence. But the Erie was so prosper- 
ous, holding its own even in this panic year of '57, 
that the directors now decided to go ahead and try the 
well-nigh impossible task of getting into Jersey City. 

Some time before this, passengers to New York 
had got into the habit of leaving the Erie at Suffern 
Station, and getting on to another road which brought 
them into New York by the way of Paterson, New 
Jersey. A short-cut road over this route had been 
built by private capital. Or rather, this short cut 
was a chain made up of three roads; the ''Union 
Railroad," the "Ramapo & Paterson" and the 
"Paterson & Jersey City." All of them were 
short. The "Union" in fact was only half a mile 
long, but was needed in making the final connection 
with the Erie. These were all narrow-gauge roads 
— that is, narrow-gauge for that time. They would 
be called standard-gauge to-day, for they were built 
on the English standard, five feet eight and a half 
inches wide, which has since been adopted by all 
the railroads of America. But the Erie was a six- 
foot road. Right here was one difficulty. The 
Erie roUing stock couldn't run on this narrow gauge, 
nor could the narrow-gauge cars and engines run on 
the broad track of the Erie. 

This short cut through Paterson, when it got 
to within two miles of the Hudson River, followed 
the track of "The New Jersey Railroad & 
Transportation Co.," through a hole in Bergen Hill 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 147 

into Jersey City. That was then the only way 
through that hill. It had been cut at the lower 
end, where the mountain was nowheres near so 
broad and so hard to tunnel as it was further up. 
But this cut through the hill was already taken. 
It was the only thoroughfare from New York to 
Philadelphia, Washington and the South. So it 
had all it could do to handle its own traffic. And 
for the Erie Road, with its great trunk-line traffic, 
to try to use that same passage-way would have 
blocked it tight. So an independent hole through 
the mountain was needed, and further up, too, where 
the tunnelling was hard. 

But the directors took the bit in their teeth, so to 
speak. They voted to buy this Paterson short cut 
consisting of the three roads running out to Suffern, 
and, leaving the narrow gauge as it was, to lay a 
third rail so as to accommodate the Erie's six-foot 
rolling stock. They also voted to dig a tunnel 
under Bergen Hill, and to build a long dock and 
terminal in Jersey City. 

I was happy. Here was the chance Td been 
waiting for. I set about softly to increase the 
difficulties the road was meeting in this job, so as 
to get her to a point where she would have to cut 
her dividends, find her balance by and by on the 
other side of the account sheet, and finally have to 
raise a loan. I didn't let the other directors know 
what I was doing. In order to keep my place on 



148 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

the Erie Board I made believe I was working for 
her interests. So, all unbeknownst to them, I began 
to put obstacles in the way of these improvements 
vv^hich the road was undertaking. Not big enough 
obstacles, of course, to stop the improvements alto- 
together. All I wanted was to get the road into hot 
water, so it would become a borrower. 

I had rwo or three ways of thus stirring up trouble. 
One was by means of the Rockland County repre- 
sentatives in the Legislature at Albany. Piermont 
and the other sections of Rockland County hated 
to see the terminal of the road moved to Jersey City, 
like a cat hates mustard. Because to be a great 
railroad terminal was booming Piermont and the 
surrounding towns. Her population was growing. 
She promised to become a city in no time. They 
didn't take at all to the idea of losing this, and of 
having the terminal moved to a city in another state. 
York State had given some grants of money to see 
the railroad built. So now the Rockland County 
people got up all kinds of objections in the Legisla- 
ture against changing the charter of the road so as 
to permit it to go down into Jersey City. These 
difficulties at Albany gave me a chance to depress 
the securities of the road, by hinting around through 
Wall Street that the road was losing its favour with 
the powers at Albany, and that it apparently was no 
longer to be York State's pet institution, but an 
outlaw from now on. The bill was at last put 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 149 

through. But not until I had made it help my 
end. 

In the tunnel which the road was trying to dig, 
I had a still better handle against them. Thousands 
of travellers go through that hole to-day, and most 
like as not hardly give a minute's thought to the 
trouble that was had in digging it. But there was 
trouble. The boring of tunnels in those days wasn't 
the easy thing it is getting to be to-day. Vanderbilt 
had done it, under Murray Hill in New York City. 
But that was a short and easy thing to do. Murray 
Hill wasn't very high — he could put a lot of air 
shafts down through from the top. The road to 
Philadelphia had also done it; but, as I said, this 
was at the lower end of Bergen Hill, where the thing 
was easy. Up where the Erie was trying to do it, 
the thing was all-fired difficult. Bergen Hill is 
made of trap rock, about as hard a thing as is known 
— so hard, in fact, that they use the rock for paving 
stones. Over in Hoboken the people in winter cut 
paving stones out of the ledge in their back yards. 
Besides, engineers didn't have anything but gun- 
powder; and the only way they could drill the 
blasting-holes was by one man holding and turning 
the drill, w^hile two others hammered it in. More 
than that, in the state of engineering science of that 
day, there was no guarantee that with so long a 
tunnel they could keep it straight and true, so as to 
know where they were coming out. Best of all — 



I50 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

for my purpose — the popular mind was in a scary 
condition in reference to so big and risky a job. 
People were open to all kinds of rumours. 

Accordingly, while the work was going on, I 
softly started reports through Wall Street to the 
effect that the tunnel wasn't getting along as pros- 
perous as had been hoped for — difficulties were 
being met with — it was all right to try to dig narrow 
tunnels through small hills; but to dig a tunnel 
for a six-foot railroad, through a mountain as big 
and hard as Bergen Hill, was being found a dif- 
ferent matter. And there were dangers, too, I 
hinted, which hadn't been calculated on. The 
workmen were getting scared to be so far in the 
bowels of a mountain, where they didn't know what 
might turn up any minute in the shape of unknown 
caverns of water, cave-ins, foul gases and such like. 

Investors are skittish folk. It's the business of 
Wall Street to catch the slightest hints and act upon 
them; which makes it the easiest place in the world 
to get rumours going. Accordingly, when these 
hints were dropped by one like myself, who was 
known to be on the inside of the Company's coun- 
cils, investors took them at once for valuable points 
as to the state of Erie's affairs. A rumour, par- 
ticularly if it comes from some source on the inside, 
only needs to be started. It spreads then of itself 
and keeps getting bigger. Capital got scared. As 
soon as it was learned that the Erie Railroad in this 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 151 

Bergen Hill tunnel had bitten ofF more than it could 
chew, in fact seemed to be getting sick of the job 
and might give up in disgust, investors became 
suddenly uncertain concerning the stock. Erie 
slumped from sixty-three down to thirty-three. So 
that the road now couldn't raise money like she 
had used to. 

This set-back came at the time when she needed 
the money most, because just then her pay-roll was 
enormous. There were new supplies to pay for; 
workmen in the tunnel to pay off every month; 
the costly right of way through Jersey City; freight- 
yards in that city; a big new station to build; and 
a long dock out into the water; and the job of getting 
a charter through the Legislature at Trenton and 
through the Jersey City Council. The Company just 
had to have money. There hardly had been a 
time when she needed capital more than she did 
just now. But capital now wasn't friendly. The 
directors met in a sad-faced session and asked what 
could be done. 

When they were most in the dumps, I stepped 
forward. I announced that I would be the road's 
helper. Since the other men of money were getting 
cold feet and seemed to be losing faith in the enter- 
prise, I would let them have a loan of my money, 
all that I could raise. If they wanted a million and 
a half, I'd see, in some way or other, that they got 
it. 



152 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

They took me up. I paid over the money, and 
took as security a chattel mortgage on the rolHng 
stock. I had the sow by the ear at last. From 
now on, for almost ten years, I had the Erie Rail- 
road in my breeches pocket, so to speak. It is 
always an advantage in Wall Street operations to 
be on the inside of a railroad or a big industrial 
concern. You know, then, the monthly earnings 
before they are given out to the public. You get 
earliest notice of any favourable or unfavourable 
happening. You have access to the transfer books 
and know where all the circulating stock is. Any 
dangers that have arisen to the road's property, 
or any new connection favourable to the road's 
earning capacity, is known to you long before the 
outside investors have got the tip. So that you can 
go onto the Stock Exchange and speckilate in those 
shares with your eyes open, whilst the rest of the 
speckilators are going it blind. An insider's posi- 
tion is as good as money in the chest. 

Besides, I had now another advantage as well. 
Not only could I predict well-nigh every turn in 
Erie shares. I could do even better. I could make 
it turn in either direction I chose. I had the horse 
by the halter, so to speak, and could lead him where 
I wanted. If my operations on the Stock Exchange 
made it needful for the stock to go up, I could give 
out that the road was prosperous — and her 
stock would go up. Or if I was in a Bearish temper 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 153 

and wanted her shares to slump, I could make the 
road unprosperous for a time, and then stocks would 
go down to the point where I wanted them. I 
worked it something like this: Erie shares would 
be selling, say at ninety. I would give orders to 
my broker to sell Erie heavily short. By selling short 
a Wall Street operator puts out contracts to deliver 
the stock, say sixty days from that date, at present 
prices. If within those sixty days the price goes 
down, he can buy at the lower price and collect at 
the higher price named in the contract. Well, after 
I had got my short contracts placed, the other 
fellows, of course, taking my offers, because they 
figured that the shares were likely to go up rather 
than down, I would give out a statement to the 
effect that I, as owner of the chattel mortgages on 
on the road, was about to foreclose. Or I would 
have one of my under-fellows get out an injunction 
forbidding the road to pay any more dividends; 
or I would start a rumour that the road was going 
to rack and ruin. Immediately there would be a 
panic in Erie quotations. Her shares would slump; 
and before the sixty days were up, that former price 
of ninety would have shrunk to, say, sixty-five. So 
that now I would buy my shares at sixty-five, sell 
them for that contract figure, ninety, and thus pocket 
$2^ clean profit on every share dealt in. If this 
particular deal had amounted to fifteen or twenty 
thousand shares, and I cleaned up $2^ on every 



154 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

share, any one can see what a fine Httle sum it would 
amount to. 

Thereupon I would turn round and work it the 
other way. I was now short of the stock — that is, 
was sold out. I would therefore buy large blocks 
of it at the low figure of $65 a share. Now it 
stands me in hand to have the stock go up in value. 
So I give out a statement to the effect that my little 
difficulty with the road, which had been noised 
abroad some weeks before, has been settled; I 
have decided not to foreclose my chattel mortgage 
after all — the road has found a way to fix 
up the matter with me, is very prosperous, in fact 
is likely to declare a big dividend shortly. Imme- 
diately, with these refreshing rumours spreading 
abroad, Erie stock begins to go up. By and by 
she touches again the top-notch figure, say, ninety. 
Now I sell, and in this way clean up $25 more on 
every share of stock I had dealt in. 

This is the advantage of operating from the 
inside. You win both going and coming. When 
stock is going down you are a Bear, and make money 
by its fall. When the stock is going up, you are a 
Bull, and make money by the rise. In fact, I worked 
this so prosperous, that after a while they made it 
into a kind of a proverb. It got to be a saying 
around the street: "Daniel says *up' — Erie 
goes up. Daniel says *down' — Erie goes down. 
Daniel says * wiggle-waggle ' — it bobs both ways!" 



XVII 

I HAD by this time got too rich to live down 
in Bleecker Street. I was becoming one of 
the big bugs in the financial world. There 
weren't so many back in those early days — Jake 
Little, Vanderbilt and a few others. If these 
fellows could have big, fine houses to live in, I thought 
I ought to have one too. 

So I went way up to Seventeenth Street. I decided 
if I was going to move at all I might as well make 
a big move while I was about it. I bought a lot 
there on the corner, facing Union Square. That 
square had been the parade ground for Company 
Drill and General Training, back in my " Bull's 
Head" days. Now it had been turned into a public 
park. Some fine houses were being built around 
it. So I wanted to live there, too, and be in the 
company of the money kings. 

I built a big house, a four-story mansion of brown 
stone, on the lower corner of the street. For I had 
money now. A man with a big jar of butter can 
spread his bread thick. My site extended back 
some distance along Seventeenth Street, and I put 
up a barn, with a cow-shed and horse-stable joined 

155 



156 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

to the house. I have always had a hankering for 
cattle. Though I was now a city dweller, I was 
bent on keeping at least a milch cow. The smell 
of cattle now and then, particularly when he is 
cooped up in a city, sort of does a fellow good. It 
makes him feel young again. Sometimes when I 
have been worried well-nigh to death in some tight 
place in my speculations, I have got up of a morning 
and walked out through the back yard and into 
the cow-stable — for I had built my home in 
such a way that by walking out through the con- 
servatory on the first floor I went down into a little 
back yard, just beyond which was the stable and cow- 
shed. Once there, the smell of the cow and horses 
would take me back to old days, and make me 
forget my worries. I could go back to the breakfast 
table a new man, ready to face anything. Family 
prayer after breakfast would also help to put spirit 
in me. We didn't have much form or ceremony in 
these daily devotions. Getting my family around 
me, I would read a portion from the Scriptures. 
Perhaps then we would sing a verse or two of a 
hymn, particularly if we had a preacher staying 
with us — I gave preachers the run of the house 
— then we would kneel and I would oflFer prayer. 
Then from the family altar I would step out 
through the back yard, and if my hired man 
wasn't around, would harness the horse my- 
self — I had a black horse for many years — to 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 157 

take me down to the Street. I had a doctor's 
gig to ride in, and would drive down the Bowery 
Road to Wall Street. There I would send a boy 
with the rig to a livery stable not far away; and 
he would also bring the rig back for me at the 
close of business that day. To have the reins in 
my hands and to feel the tug of the bit, would carry 
me back to old days when I was driving along the 
"Mud Road" or the "Horse Pound Road" up at 
Carmel looking for calves and heifers. 

I was glad that I had made the move up into the 
big house on Union Square. Because it gave me 
standing among the boys on the Street. This was 
the time when Wall Street was beginning to get 
important. The early cow gets the dew, and those 
who were on the Stock Exchange back in those days 
made money. For the Civil War was coming on. 
We didn't know it then. Still, we knew that some- 
thing big was on the anvil. There was a stir in 
the air. Nobody knew what was going to happen 
next. And we made big bets, so to speak, as to 
what would come off on the morrow. Even the 
most unlikely speckilation would sometimes win, 
affairs were that unsettled. The very existence of 
the nation was uncertain. Nobody knew just where 
we stood. At such seasons, speckilators have good 
times. When excitement is high and one thing as 
likely to happen as another, it gets people worked 
up to venture big sums. 



158 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

When the Civil War finally broke out, I wasn't 
sure for a spell whether I wanted to see York State 
go into it or not. Because, if the nation went to 
smash, and our state was mixed up in it, we would 
be in the smash-up, too. Whilst, if we stayed out 
of the muss, and the smash-up came, we could save 
our bacon. Because our state, and particularly 
New York City, was in position to get along even 
if there wasn't any nation. In fact, there might be 
advantages in being independent of the rest of the 
country — a sovereignty all by ourselves. Fernando 
Wood, who was Mayor of New York when the War 
broke out, suggested this in a message to the Com- 
mon Council. Fie wanted them to consider whether 
it might not be to our advantage to become a free 
and independent city. Said he: 

"Why should not New York City, instead of 
supporting, by her contributions in revenues, two- 
thirds of the expenses of the United States, become 
also equally independent .? As a free city with but a 
nominal duty on imports, her local government 
would be supported without taxes upon her people. 
Thus we could live free from taxes, and have cheap 
goods nearly duty-free." 

It was a puzzle, and I for one couldn't just make 
up my mind. We in New York were a commercial 
set. We didn't have New England's hot-headedness 
to get excited over Negro cotton-pickers down South. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 159 

And if the general smash-up was to come, it was 
true that New York as a free and sovereign city, 
having such a fine harbour location, could get goods 
from Europe free of duty and keep all of that tariff 
money to herself. But then, on the other hand, it 
was to the advantage of us money kings to have a 
big country to operate in; because railroads cross 
the country without regard to state boundaries. 
We wanted a big landscape so we could do a big 
business. It was a hard thing to decide, whether 
to go in for the War and stand by the Union, or stay 
out and make ourselves free and independent. 
But Abe Lincoln came to New York and made 
a speech in Cooper Union. That turned the people 
towards the preservation of the Union. It wasn't 
much of a stump speech. Lincoln's voice, I always 
thought, was too husky to make him a popular 
talker. But people who came away from Cooper 
Union that night got the notion that this question 
of standing by the Union was really of considerable 
importance. The speech made a lot of talk over 
the city, and even roused some of the boys on the 
Street, who commonly were calm-headed like myself. 
Then when, on top of that speech, the shots were fired 
on Fort Sumter, it made such an almighty stir among 
the people generally that we Wall Street men had to 
get in step. A fellow would have been very unpopu- 
lar then, if he had stood out against the War. It was 
now a case of fight it out, no matter what the cost. 



i6o THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

What won't make butter must go into cheese. If 
the War must come, I decided to make it help my 
fortunes. And I must say that I soon began to 
wonder how I had been of two minds as to the advan- 
tage or disadvantage of a war. For I saw very 
quickly that the War of the Rebellion was going to 
be a money-maker for me. Along with ordinary 
happenings, we fellows in Wall Street now had in 
addition the fortunes of war to speckilate about 
and that always makes great doings on a stock 
exchange. It's good fishing in troubled waters. 
As I look back now, I see that I never made more 
money, or had four years that were all in all more 
genuinely prosperous, than those four years of the 
War. Commonly, the things that belong to guns 
and battles and soldiers don't appeal to me. I 
made some money once — I guess I've men- 
tioned it in these papers, somewheres — by 
wearing a knapsack for the Government, in the 
War of 1812. But I saw even as a boy that this 
thing they call patriotism is a mighty slow way in 
which to roll up a fortune. I have noticed since, 
that the fellows who are all the time hurrahing for 
their country don't get fat bank accounts. For 
instance, there was all of that talk about the 
Missouri Compromise. When I was getting 
started in Wall Street there were people who 
talked of nothing else but Missouri — discussing 
sometimes way into the night. And they are for 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW i6i 

the most part poor men to-day. Whilst all of that 
time I was giving myself to business, and piling 
up money. 

But now I saw that I could turn this very 
thing of war into a helpful friend. Because, with 
McClellan's Peninsular Campaign, a tall business 
began in Wall Street. I found myself getting really 
interested in the movements of armies and such- 
like things. For now it stood me in hand to keep 
track of the doings at the front. In fact, we finan- 
cial men organized a way for getting early news from 
the seat of war. A silver key will open any kind 
of a lock. We had on our pay-roll sutlers, reporters, 
private soldiers and officers even up to generals. 
Also, there were politicians in Washington, even a 
Congressman or two, whom we used to pay. We 
found that it was a good plan also to have an under- 
standing with telegraph operators, because when 
they were sending important messages to the Gov- 
ernment from the seat of war, they could favour us 
by sending the news also to us — sometimes before 
they sent it to Washington. Big officials who 
wouldn't accept money could usually be reached 
by giving them some shares in the stock we were 
manipulating. (We didn't dare make offers of 
this kind to Abe himself. Lincoln was an unprac- 
tical man, so far as making money went. All he 
tlTought about was to save the Union. He used to 
get very peevish at some of us money kings.) During 



i62 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

these days of the War we who were on the Inside 
could call the turn of a stock long before the 
general public. 

This made very profitable business. In fact, 
I got to taking a great interest in the Boys in Blue. 
I came to look upon them as heroes. Their pay, 
to be sure, would have to come out of the taxes. 
We rich men would have to foot most of the bill. 
Still, I didn't let that thought bother me. I felt 
that the Boys in Blue, sometimes tramping all night 
through fever swamps and across mountains, or 
lying in the camp hospitals sick and wounded and 
dying, earned all the monthly pay they got. Because 
they were beating the waters, so to speak, and we 
in Wall Street were getting the fish. There was 
the Antietam Campaign, for instance. It was worth 
a good deal to a Wall Street speckilator, that one 
campaign. Because, whilst the people all through 
the North were still wondering what was the fate 
of that expedition, we, by our underground telegraph 
lines, so to speak, knew the outcome of the cam- 
paign, and turned it to such good use in the stock 
market that we made almost enough from that one 
deal to pay the wages of every Boy in Blue in that 
army. When Richmond was finally taken, I for 
one was sorry to have the War come to an end, so 
great had been my change of view towards the whole 
affair. 



XVIII 

ONE day, big Bill Tweed dropped in on 
me at my house on Union Square. He 
had got interested in Erie speckilations 
some time before, and as I was the head and front 
of Erie, he used to come to see me in regard to turns 
in the stock. His old Bowery boys, anyhow, had 
been in large part butchers' apprentices. I had 
known the New York butchers since earliest days. 
So I had been in close touch with Tweed's rank 
and file for a long time back, even when he was 
foreman of the "Big Six" Engine Company, and 
had got into trouble with that other engine company 
for blocking their way to a fire so his company 
could get there first. (It had been those butcher 
boys then which had stood by him and had helped 
him out of that trouble.) So, when he went into 
politics, I was glad to get in with him personally, 
because he was becoming a person of importance 
in the affairs of the city. It's always an advantage 
to a big operator in the Street to be on personal 
terms with political leaders. 

Tweed had in turn seen that it stood him in hand 
to be on intimate terms with me. After he had 

163 



i64 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

got out of the chair business, which his father had 
built up before him down on Pearl Street, he had 
got into Erie speckilations good and deep. Erie 
shares had got to be the leading speckilation on 
the market. For, as head of that road, I had found 
ways of using its shares in Wall Street whereby I 
could sometimes make a turn of ten points in Erie 
inside of a month. A stock that bobs back and 
forth as suddenly as that, is going to be followed 
by a great crowd of speckilators. Tweed was one 
of these. He thought he could make more money 
speckilating in Erie than he could by making chairs. 
So he gave up that business, and put all of his money 
into Wall Street — mostly into Erie. 

On the day that I am speaking of, I saw that he 
was grumpy over these Erie ventures of his. He 
was as cross as two sticks. I used to take my visitors 
up into the sitting room on the first floor, facing 
the Square. (Why, in the plush rocking-chair in 
that room, Jimmy Fisk sat and talked with me 
the very morning of the day he was shot.) Well, 
as soon as Tweed came in and was seated, I saw 
at once that he was all het up about something or 
other. He started right in. He said I and my 
Erie crowd were no better than a crew of blood- 
suckers; and he swore profanely. He had been 
brought pretty near to busting up, so he said. And 
he told of the pile of money he had lost, how it had 
crippled him up, and such-like. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 165 

I let him go on. It's a good thing to let a loser 
talk. I could well believe that what he was saying 
about his losses in Erie was true. Because he had 
been one of the outsiders in that stock. What's 
the use of being on the inside if you don't have 
the advantage over speckilators who are on the 
outside .f* And he had been one of these. Green 
wood makes the hottest fire — it's so full of sap. 
But I didn't say these things to Tweed. I was 
afraid it would only make him madder. Soft words 
quench more than a bucket of water. He was 
already mad enough, goodness knows. He pawed 
around like a horse with the colic — said that the 
points I had given him on Erie hadn't been worth 
a hill of beans. He even said I had fooled him on 
purpose! 

"And a pretty go you've brought me to, Dan 
Drew," said he. He sputtered like a tea-kettle 
when it's boiling over. Tweed was a big, thick- 
mouthed fellow; when he got excited he would spit 
out his words so you could hardly understand him. 
"You have gone and drained me dry! Busted me! 
Busted my father, too! The old man's all broke 
up over it! He says I've taken the bread out of 
his mouth to pour into Wall Street. I can't go home 
any more without he curses me up hill and down. 
He says he'll throw it in my teeth at Judgment 
Day for taking the bread out of an old man's mouth. 
— And the business is gone! — That dad of 



i66 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

mine worked a lifetime to build up that chair 
business! And now it's been swept away! And 
where's the money gone ? Til tell you where it's 
gone! It's gone to build such fine brown-stone 
mansions as the one you're living in right at this 
minute! And if you don't begin to do something 
for me, Drew," said he, "I'm going to get back at 
you! Sweet Jesus! Do you think I'm going to 
be a sucker and let you hook me like this all the 
time ? I took the points you've been giving me, 
thinking you were on the square. And you've 
done me dirt! When you've let me win once, you've 
turned around and sucked it all back the very next 
day! . . . And it don't go any longer, Dan. You 
fellows in Erie have got to take me in with you. 
That's all there is to it. Or I'll make it so hot for 
you, you'll wish you'd never been born!" 

I let him go on. Big barkers are small biters. 
I knew that if be blustered around like that before- 
hand, he wouldn't do much. It's the still fellows 
that I've always been scared of. There's Vander- 
bilt. One of his mottoes used to be: "Never 
tell anybody what you're going to do until you've 
done it." When he was going to rip a Tellow, he'd 
never let that fellow know beforehand. Beware 
of quiet dogs and still waters. So I let Tweed have 
it out in talk. Anyhow, he wasn't so poor as he 
tried to make out. He had a diamond in his shirt- 
bosom which looked as big as an engine's head- 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 167 

light. And he went around town with a coach 
and a team of horses. I suppose it cost him more 
to support his kept women, than it would an ordinary 
householder to take care of a home. 

By and by he got over his fury. Then I began 
to talk. I called him "Biir\' Tweed was a man 
that had a lot of good in his heart, spite of all 
that his enemies say against him. I always found 
I could do more with him by kindness than in any 
other way. You need smooth wedges to get into 
a knotty piece of timber. 

*' Bill," said I, " why don't you get into Congress 
again ^ You've got gifts." 

"Congress!" said he. "Congress is the pokiest 
old hole under heaven! Any young squirt can go 
down to Washington and, if he's got the gift of 
gab, can cut a figure. But as to money-making, 
there's nothing down there for a man of talent. 
I suppose I know more Parliamentary Law than 
anybody in Congress. But that doesn't make any 
money for you. I can make more in six months 
as Street Commissioner of New York, than I could 
in Congress in a hundred years. All they talk about 
down there is Fugitive Slave Laws. I'd like to 
know what in thunder I care about Fugitive Slave 
Laws! I never was interested in niggers, anyhow. 
They're no good. I've got a lot of them now, over 
there in that ward by the river. But they don't 
stay fixed like my Sixth Warders do. They're all 



i68 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

the time flopping to the other side, particularly now 
that the War has set in. Fve got to have money. 
My expenses are heavy. I can't live like one of 
your goody-goods. And if you big w^igs don't take 
me in v^ith you, you'll w^ish you had." 

I turned on him sort of cool-like. " Bill," said I, 
"hov^ v^ould you like to go in v^^ith a street raiWay 
deal } You are a Commissioner of Streets for the 
city. I guess you have a lot to do also v^ith the 
Common Council, don't you .?" 

"I should say I had," said he. "I've got a ring 
in the nose of every mother's son of them." 

"Well," said I, "have you been foUov^ing that 
application of some New York parties up at Albany 
to get a franchise to lay a pair of steel rails down 
Broadway .?" 

"Yes," he replied; "a little " 

"Has it occurred to you that those fellows in the 
Legislature — the Assemblymen and Senators — 
would turn a pretty penny, if they were allowed 
to dispose of the Broadway franchise .?" 

"Of course, they would," said Tweed. "I'd 
like to know what earthly right they have to meddle 
with New York City affairs. This is our hunting 
ground. They had better keep off." 

"Just what I was thinking of," said I. "And 
they tell me that Vanderbilt is starting in to head 
that Albany proposition off on his own account; 
because, in the charter of his Harlem Railroad, 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 169 

there is a clause permitting him to extend his tracks 
down Broadway, whenever the Mayor and Aldermen 
of New York City give their consent." 

Tweed began to prick up his ears. He was a 
quick fellow to arrive at your meaning. He had 
a shrewd headpiece. It's true that women could 
lead him around by the nose. (The same with 
Richard Connolley — "Slippery Dick/' we used 
to call him. That woman of his whom he 
picked up from the Turkish Bath where she had 
been an attendant, used to play him all kinds of 
tricks, and he wasn't any the wiser. If it had been 
a man, Dick would have seen through him at once.) 
But in other ways Tweed was very knowing. He 
now listened close. 

I then went on to show how we could work the 
Common Council in such a way as to squeeze Vander- 
bilt in his Harlem-Broadway enterprise, and make a 
neat little sum out of it. 

We became friends again, whereas it had looked 
pretty squally half an hour before. Tweed was 
a gunpowder fellow. He got mad quick and got 
over it quick. Now that I had promised to help 
him get back by this Harlem-Railroad deal some 
of the money he had lost, he was willing to be on 
good terms again with me. 



XIX 

THE Harlem Railroad was the offspring 
of the stage-coach that used to run by 
my "Bull's Head" tavern. That stage 
line was from Park Row, New York City, up to 
Harlem Village, above where iioth Street now is. 
As the people moved out from New York and settled 
up in that section, Harlem grew to be a good-sized 
town. When railroads were at last seen to be 
practicable things, a line of rails was laid from that 
village down to New York, and was called the Har- 
lem Railroad — because it went to Harlem Village. 
The rails were not laid along the Old Boston Road. 
It would have scared the horses. Anyhow, the 
stage-coach people didn't like the new-fangled 
steam buggies any too much, and never would have 
allowed their post-roads to be encroached upon in 
that fashion. So the rails were laid a little to the 
west of the Boston Road, where Fourth Avenue 
now runs. 

The Harlem railroad first along wasn't much 
thought of. Its stock just before the War sold as 
low as eight dollars a share. But, instead of allow- 
ing it to stop with Harlem Village, they now began 

170 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 171 

to run it up through the Harlem Valley, where I 
used to drive my critters down from Putnam County 
to the city. By and by it got clean up to Brewsters'. 
Vanderbilt about this time had a lot of loose money, 
and began to invest in the stock of this railroad. 
His friends laughed at him. They thought the 
shares were hardly worth the paper they were printed 
on — said the road would go up the spout soon or 
late. But he kept at it, and by and by owned a 
big block of stock. I got in, too, and soon owned 
considerable of it. 

The depot was down on Fourth Avenue at Twenty- 
sixth Street. The trains didn't run all the way 
down there. It was thought that engines were not 
fitted for climbing hills. So four horses used to 
take each car out from the station and draw it 
through the streets up to Forty-third Street. There 
the cars were made up into a train and hitched onto 
an engine which took them flying out to Brewsters\ 
By and by Vanderbilt got rid of that bothersome 
Murray Hill which stood square in the middle of 
his car line, by digging a tunnel right through the 
bowels of it. 

This tunnel made the Commodore very proud 
of himself. A good many people had said, when 
he had begun the tunnel, that it was too big a job — 
that he couldn't go through with it. But he had 
done it — had widened Fourth Avenue forty feet 
in order to make room — and now was so vain- 



172 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

glorious that he planned a still bigger scheme. He 
would take that street-railway end of his Harlem 
Railroad and continue it down from Twenty-sixth 
Street to Fourteenth, there turn the corner over 
into Broadway, and then run it all the way to the 
Battery. By this time Broadway had become a 
much-travelled thoroughfare. A street-car line 
through it would be a money-maker. Here is where, 
by means of taking the Common Council into our 
partnership, Tweed and I got in our scheme. 

I set to work. I bought some more of the Harlem 
stock. (The price had got away beyond that 
eight-dollar figure.) Then, when I and the rest of 
us who were on the deal had got pretty well loaded 
up with Harlem, we got the Common Council to 
pass an ordinance permitting Vanderbilt to go ahead 
and lay his rails down Broadway. The Mayor 
signed it. Instantly, the stock went soaring. The 
Legislature up at Albany were mad as hornets. 
They saw all the good fat pickings going to the 
Aldermen and Councilmen of New York City, 
rather than to themselves. But they couldn't do 
anything; because there was the clause in Van- 
derbilt's old Harlem Charter, permitting such a 
thing to be done whenever the New York City 
authorities gave their consent. The ''Chancellors- 
ville Rise" came along just at this moment and 
also helped. Hooker, with what he called "the finest 
army on the planet," had for months been watching 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 173 

the rebels. At last he had crossed the Rappa- 
hannock and advanced against the enemy. We in 
Wall Street began to hold our breath for fear lest 
he'd end the war then and there, and our period 
of prosperity come to an end. But he retreated 
and now was on this side the Rappahannock once 
more. It was a great relief. Stocks rose all along 
the line. For we saw now that we'd have a longer 
spell of war-time speckilation. Harlem went up 
along with the other stocks. 

With Harlem's stock up at a high figure, and 
continually soaring higher, I saw what seemed 
the favourable moment to make our move. So 
we began to sell the stock short. In order to start 
a Bear campaign, you must first balloon the stock 
sky-high. Because when you are a Bear you sell 
when the stock is high, and deliver when the stock 
is low (that is, if the deal turns out right). Your 
profit is the diflFerence between those two figures — 
the greater the difference, the greater your profit. 
Besides, it is usually easier to put out a line of shorts 
when the market is high. Through some kink or 
other in human nature, the ordinary run of people 
are bullish and hopeful towards a stock when it's 
high. The stock has gone up so finely, they suppose 
it's going to keep on going up, and you usually find 
them ready buyers of your short sales. 

This was true in the present case. The stock 
never looked to have better prospects than it did 



174 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

just now. The Harlem Railroad was already earn- 
ing money, because it went through the rich Harlem 
Valley. And now, with the Broadway franchise 
added, the road was bound to roll up big dividends 
for everybody who owned anything in it. So, at 
least, most of the people figured. Thus, when 
our Bear crowd began to sell the stock short, people 
snapped at our offers of the stock like a pike bites 
at a shiner. 

Then we told the Aldermen and Councilmen 
that the time had come to touch off the fireworks. 
So they met. Tweed was a master hand, anyhow, 
in manipulating a legislative body. He could make 
them do 'most anything he wanted. He was a big, 
overgrown chap, full of spirits, and could boss men 
around like sheep or cattle. The Board and Com- 
mon Council took our orders. They passed an 
ordinance reconsidering their former decision as to 
the Broadway franchise. Then they rescinded 
the grant. 

Harlem dropped like a shot partridge. Vander- 
bilt and his crowd thought, when the Aldermen had 
finally been brought to pass the measure, that the 
franchise was then as good as gold. He didn't 
realize that there were some of us who had inside 
power with the City Fathers and could turn a trick 
or two. Vanderbilt, who beheved in getting a 
thing done and then let them howl, was starting 
to dig up the street and lay his rails. We got an 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 175 

injunction from the Court of Common Pleas pro- 
hibiting the laying of the track. We thought now 
that the stock, which had been at seventy-five, 
would drop to fifty. But something happened. The 
court dissolved our injunction. Vanderbilt sus- 
tained the market. And, do the best we could, 
the price refused to sag below seventy-three. The 
city politicians were for the most part men of small 
means. Their margins were soon exhausted. They 
were sold out. I had been a heavy owner of Harlem 
in my own right, so I myself got out of the hole in 
fairly good shape. 

Then the battle-field shifted to Albany. A 
favourable report was purposely given out from 
the Legislature as to the prospects for a Broadway 
franchise for the Harlem Railroad. Harlem jumped 
from seventy-five to one hundred and fifty. Know- 
ing something of what was to happen behind the 
scenes, I, in the face of all these appearances, went 
and committed myself heavily to the short side. 
Because this favourable report which had been sent 
out was only a blind; as soon as the stock, in obedi- 
ence to it, jumped up, the legislators at Albany 
sold the stock short, for a decline. Then they out 
with their trick — they turned and defeated Van- 
derbilt's bill. In two days the price fell fifty points. 
But just as I was beginning to count my profits, 
the ticker began to tell another story — the stock 
turned. It went up to 127; to 140; to 150; yes. 



176 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

to 185. I saw at once that our boat, which had been 
saiHng so prosperous, had struck some kind of a 
snag. And the nature of it wasn't very long coming 
to Hght — we had sold short 27,000 more shares 
of stock than there were in the whole capital of the 
road. We were in a corner. Our efforts to wiggle 
out only raised the price of the stock still higher. 
It touched 285. Even at that figure we couldn't 
buy any. Vanderbilt had us tight. 

It was a case of compromise. When delivery 
time came, I went up to see him. He had his office 
on Fourth Street. We had a long talk together. 
I said there was no use beating around the bush — 
I was cornered — I couldn't make my deliveries 
— I might as well own up first as last. I told 
him that in this particular deal he had been too smart 
for me. We had oversold the market. I wanted to 
make terms. I told him that I looked to lose some 
money in the affair, and asked him to make it 
as small as he could. I showed him that customers 
are like fiddle-strings — you mustn't screw them 
too tight. Anyhow, he was in a position to let me 
off scot free, if he felt so inclined. Because he was 
squeezing loads of profit out of the other fellows in 
my crowd, and so could afford to let me go free. 
I reminded him how he and I had been old friends; 
in fact, I had named my boy "William Henry," 
after his boy. 

But Vanderbilt didn't soften. "Drew," said he. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 177 

"this isn't a game of croquet that we are playing. 
It's man's business, this thing we call Wall Street. 
And it isn't going to do you any good to chat about 
old steamboat days. You tried to corner me, and 
you've got your fingers caught while you were set- 
ting the trap. If Harlem had dropped to 75, instead 
of rising to 285, would you have helped stand 
my loss ? You are cornered tight, and now you've 
got to pay up. Turn over to me all of your per- 
sonal property — I'll let you keep your real estate 
— and we'll call the thing settled." 

I saw then that I was in for it. But I kept up a 
bold countenance. I said: "All right, Cornelius 
Vanderbilt. If you are so hard-hearted as to forget 
a friend, I won't speak of that any more. But I 
want you to understand that you haven't got your 
money yet. My contract with you merely reads 
that you can call upon me for so many thousand 
shares of Harlem stock. It doesn't say anything 
about my delivering the stock to you. Call all you 
wish. If you want to wrestle this thing out in the 
courts, we'll wrestle it." I thought maybe that 
threat of litigation would scare him. But it didn't. 

"After this, never sell what you haven't got, 
Dannie; never sell what you haven't got," was all 
the answer he made. "Don't put it in any man's 
power to ruin you. By-bye." 

I left him. But the truth is, in that threat I'd 
made, I had appeared braver than I really was. I 



178 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

thought for a spell of laying down on my contracts 
and telling Vanderbilt right to his face that I didn't 
care how much paper of mine he held, he couldn't 
collect it and that's all there was to it. But the 
trouble is, that would have given me a black eye 
on the Street. Wall Street conducts its deals on a 
"Pay-up" principle — when you've made a con- 
tract, keep it. They don't look with favour on 
any one who tries to squirm out. The Stock 
Exchange Board jacks you up good and quick if 
you don't live up to your word. I didn't want to 
hurt my future in the Street. As to the law courts, 
they also didn't offer me much help; because they 
hold that the paper you have given to the other fellow 
makes a legal contract, which you must live up to. 
So there I was. I thought of turning to Tweed. 
He controlled many of the judges, and I might get 
oflFin that way. But just now I wasn't in very thick 
with Tweed. This whole affair of the Harlem 
corner hadn't helped him hardly any more than it 
had me. We had started out to squeeze Vanderbilt; 
and, unfortunately, we had got squeezed ourselves. 
So that Tweed just now was in a bad humour. 
Besides, his pride had suffered a fall. At Henry 
Clay's funeral, Tweed's oration in the Board of 
Aldermen, a kind of a funeral sermon over the 
life and death of Clay, was something he 
had taken a great pride in. It was the first 
public speech he had ever made. And, as it now 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 179 

turned out, it was his last. From becoming a 
great statesman and a moulder of public opinion, 
Tweed, because of this Harlem affair, had suddenly 
taken a fall. For when he and his Aldermen passed 
Vanderbilt's Broadway franchise measure, it had 
been in violation of Judge Duer's injunction, and 
Duer got so mad that he up and put the whole 
Board of City Fathers, Tweed along with the rest, 
in jail. Tweed was terribly worked up over it. 
He saw that he couldn't be a statesman and a leader 
of public opinion, after such a mishap as that; and 
he got almighty sore about it. To mention Harlem 
to him now was like a red rag to a bull. He sput- 
tered and swore so profanely, when Fd try to talk 
with him about it, that I saw it wasn't much use. 
Nevertheless, I used it as an argument with 
Vanderbilt. Going to the Commodore again, I 
told him that I had come to make a settlement if 
he was in the mood for it. I hinted that I had more 
or less of an inside track with the law courts of 
New York City, since I knew some of the politicians 
pretty close; and that if he wanted to fight it out 
to a finish, I could make a peck of trouble for him. 
He knew that I was more or less in with Tweed, 
the Street Commissioner of New York City, and his 
crowd, and Vanderbilt's future plans had a whole 
lot to do with the use of New York City streets. We 
came to a settlement. Vanderbilt had a lot of 
enterprises under way, and didn't want to get into 



i8o THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

litigation if he could help it — he said he didn't 
have time to bother. So we hit upon a figure at j 
which I could settle my contracts. I wrote my 
check, and the thing was finished. It cost me well- 
nigh half a million. But I was glad to get out 
even at that figure. Because it left me something, 
and for a time it looked as though I might be stripped 
of all my goods. When you're cornered in selling 
shares short, you are in a terrible fix. The fellow 
who has cornered you, if he is so minded, can take 
every last cent you've got. Because, as I have put 
it in the form of a poem (Fm not much of a rhymer, 
but I suppose I could have turned my hand to verse- 
making if I had set my mind to it) : 

"He that sells what isn't his'n. 
Must buy it back, or go to prison." 

This Harlem corner did me more hurt than 
just the loss of the money. To hand over a half- 
million in cold cash did me lots of damage. And I 
couldn't blame it on anybody else, either. I felt 
like a cow that had stuck herself. Besides, it hurt 
me in the Street. They snickered at me now when 
I was coming to my office, or going home at night — 
would nudge each other when they saw me passing, 
and whisper: "He went short of Harlem." In 
fact, that got to be a saying on the Street, to mean 
any kind of a hard-luck blow. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW i8i 

The poor legislators at Albany also were hard 
hit by the corner. Some of them had to leave Albany 
at the end of the session without paying their board- 
bill. As for me, I spit on my hands and took a 
new holt. 



XX 



THE Harlem loss made a big hole in my 
heart. And some might suppose that 
I was so in the dumps by it that I became 
sour and backslided from religion. But they would 
be mistaken. I know there are people who serve 
God only so long as they are prosperous. When 
an unlucky stroke falls, they curse religion. But I 
don't. It doesn't do any good. Spit against 
Heaven, and it will fall back into your own face. 
Besides, the Lord doesn't guarantee to make a 
man prosperous in each and every undertaking. 
It isn't all butter that comes from the cow; only 
a part is worked up into butter; and in some churn- 
ings the butter won't come at all, no matter how 
hard you work the splasher. 

Besides, I have found that religion is often most 
needed just in the times when you are in the dumps. 

" From every stormy wind that blows. 
From every swelling tide of woes, 
There is a calm, a sure retreat; 
'Tis found beneath the mercy seat." 

More than that, I had by this time invested a 

182 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 183 

whole lot of money in my church, and couldn't 
afford to lose it. The trustees of the old Mulberry 
Street Meeting House, when they saw the people 
moving up town, wanted to move the church up 
also, and be in the heart of the residential district. 
I helped this plan along. It wasn't fit, now that I 
had become one of the money kings, that I should 
worship in a dingy building down on Mulberry 
Street. I told the trustees I would help them build 
a new meeting house. They jumped at the offer. 
That big marble structure on Fourth Avenue, at 
the corner of Twenty-second Street, is the result. 
We had big doings when the new church was 
finally dedicated. It happened, I remember, on a 
Sunday morning in early May. Dr. Durbin 
preached the sermon. His text was: "Behold the 
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the 
world." Dr. Durbin was a master hand at theological 
exposition. He knew as much about the fine points 
of doctrine as 'most any man I ever met. He was 
learned in the Scriptures. He was an advocate of 
free grace, and could argue for hours, for he was a 
man of strong convictions. He felt the importance 
of right theological thinking. In fact, he never 
seemed so happy as when he was upholding the true 
Faith and attacking dangerous forms of doctrine. 
He was a positive man; so much so that in matters 
of theology he and I didn't always agree. But I 
had to admire his courage. The Prophets of the 



i84 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

Old Testament times, I suppose, were not always 
loved by everybody. Prophets often have to speak 
plain truth and hurt people's feelings. So, when 
Dr. Durbin's ideas didn't just jibe with mine — say, 
in the matter of Justification and Holiness, con- 
cerning which we had some little difference of belief, 
for I have always held that the witness of our con- 
version carries with it justifying grace and will of 
itself, in time, sanctify every unhallowed affection — 
I didn't hold it against him; he meant all right, 
anyhow. 

On the present occasion, however, his views 
agreed with mine to a T. There haven't been many 
discourses from the sacred desk that have done me 
more good than this one. For he outlined the plan 
of salvation. He showed how wonderfully we, the 
converted, had been delivered from our lost and 
fallen estate. In picturing the sin-sick soul, he didn't 
use any lady-words. It was a soul, he said, that 
had no light, either above or round about; and in 
that state, said he, all of us who were there in that 
congregation had at some time or other been. God's 
wrath had burned against us while we were in that 
state of rebellion, so that Justice, in its righteous 
anger, had come near to sink us into Hell. But 
Free mercy performed the great transaction, and had 
plunged us into the crystal stream. The blood of 
sprinkling, which speaketh better things than the 
blood of Abel, had availed to cancel all our 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 185 

iniquities. Justification by faith alone — how 
the speaker brought out the wondrous comfort in 
those words! — sealed the vow. Pardoning mercy 
ratified the convenant; and now, said he, our ransom 
has been paid. 

"Salvation, oh, the joyful sound! 
What pleasure to our ears! 
A sovereign balm for every wound, 
A charm for all our fears." 

Our High Priest, in his all-engaging charms, has 
expiated our sins. We are under the blood. 

When he got to his main point, of how we are 
freely justified by grace through faith, the great 
congregation became roused. "Hallelujahs'' began 
to be heard here and there. I could well see why 
they were so moved; because the preacher was not 
only showing great intellectual power in this dis- 
course of his; he was full of emotion as well, and 
there was a light beaming from his eyes. Once or 
twice he got the unction; and then the words wouldn't 
come fast enough. Our own righteousness, he went 
on to say, is but as filthy rags. Faith in the all- 
cleansing fountain, that is to be our crown of glory 
and alone our sign and seal of salvation. And so, 
we, clothed in imputed righteousness as in a wedding 
garment, are summoned to the marriage supper of 
the Lamb. And, being thus clothed, we dread now 
no condemnation. Our surety is on high. The 



i86 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

blood that has been so freely shed has paid the debt — 
all the debt I owe. So that, with unfeigned sin- 
cerity, we rest in our glorious advocate. Filled 
with his righteousness, the sin-convincing spirit 
now passes by our door, as it did the Israelites in 
Egypt of old. For it sees the mark of the blood 
on the lintels, and visits its doom now only on the 
homes of the unregenerate. The pearly gates 
swing wide. Glory to the Lamb! 

When the preacher was through, the hymn that 
followed was sung in a way to show that the earnest 
words of the speaker had not been spoken in vain. 
There was a volume to it and a glory that doesn't 
come as a tribute to mere human efforts. 

When it was all over, and the benediction had 
been pronounced, I waited for Dr. Durbin to come 
down to me. Since it had been my money which 
had really made this large and beautiful meeting 
house possible, this dedication service was one in 
which I naturally felt a personal interest — yes, 
even a responsibility. I was, therefore, not only 
pleased but greatly relieved that the service had gone 
off so prosperous. Now at the close I didn't use 
many words in expressing my sentiments to the 
preacher. Sometimes the greatest feeling is put 
into the fewest words. I took him by the hand, 
pressed it warmly, and looking him in the eye, 
said: "Brother Durbin, I thank you for that ser- 
mon." 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 187 

The many peaceful and soothing hours I have 
spent in this church since that opening day, have 
repaid me all the money I gave to it. To be sure, 
they didn't call the church after my name; but city 
churches don't often do that. Up in Carmel they 
did. And I don't know a finer kind of a monument 
for a man than to have his name engraved on the 
front of some fine church. Any one who goes up 
to that town to-day will see it — carved in solid 
stone, right over the doorway: "Daniel Drew 
Church." Some of the people in Carmel have got 
to calling it the "St. Daniel Drew Church." But 
I always regarded that as more of a nick-name 
than anything else. It's a caution, anyhow, the 
way that the younger generation in this here land 
of ours, gives nick-names to things. They don't 
seem to have reverence, the way that young people 
used to have in my day. 

Then again, there is the Ladies' Seminary of 
mine, in Carmel. Raymond, the circus man in 
that village, named it first after himself. It looked 
for a time as though he would plant his family name 
into the life of the town deeper than my own could 
be planted. Every man wants his family name to 
be remembered, at least in his native town. You 
can stick up a gravestone, with your name carved 
on it. But that's a dead thing. But put the money 
into some institution — that will go on living year 
after year; you have hitched yourself now to some- 



i88 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

thing that's ahve. The monument would have 
let your name remain unspoken, for marble is 
dumb. But institutions last from generation to 
generation, and speak out your name constantly. 
It is worth a man's while to build two or three of 
them during his lifetime, even though they are pretty 
costly at the time. Therefore, I was glad when 
the way opened for me to take Raymond's school 
and make it into " Drew Ladies' Seminary." About 
the only thing Raymond has got up in Carmel now 
is "Raymond Hill," where there's a burying ground. 
A burying ground is a dead thing, but seminaries 
are living things. Over at Brewsters', also, they 
were building their church. I gave to it ^7,000. 
In this case they didn't put my name on the church. 
In fact, the church doesn't bear the name of any 
person at all. But the people around there all 
know that if it hadn't been for me giving a plumb 
half of the cost, the church might never have been 
built. Perhaps they will put a memorial window 
in, after I am gone. 

But I don't boast. My gifts to religion and such 
like are not altogether gifts. They are a sort of an 
investment. I have always held that what you give 
to the Lord comes back to you. God has a long 
memory. For a time he may not seem to have 
noticed your gift, and you think most likely he has 
forgot all about it. But he hasn't. Such things 
never slip his mind. Soon or late, he will even it 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 189 

up with you. God keeps a full set of books. He 
always balances his accounts. I trust his book- 
keeping. Sometimes I have given money to him 
and have let the affair slip from my mind altogether; 
because I knew that he had put it all down on the 
right side of his ledger and would take care of the 
account. 

I calculate there are lots of business men who 
don't prosper, because they don't give to the Lord 
a slice of their profits. They try to hog it all. When 
he sees that sort of thing going on, he contrives 
to put a spoke in their wheel. They may think he 
doesn't know what they are doing, but he does. 
God wears gum shoes when he comes down here 
upon earth to spy. He doesn't let anybody know 
he's coming, least of all the man whom he's to spy 
out. These men are like Ananias and Sapphira. 
They think they can fool the Lord as to how much 
money they have, and so cut him down on his share. 
But he isn't fooled. To give a percentage to the 
Lord is just as good business policy as to pay the 
taxes on your house and lot. In either case, if you 
don't pay up good and prompt you'll sweat 
for it. 

I haven't had to get out and look up all of the 
money-making things I have gone into. Some- 
times they have come knocking at my door, as 
though they had been mysteriously sent. And often 
these have been the very ones that have turned out 



I90 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

most profitable. There's that affair with the man 
Parker, from the West — " CaHfornia Parker," they 
called him, because he came from the Pacific Coast. 
I made a fine penny out of the dicker I had with 
him. But it wasn't altogether my own doings. 
I didn't look him up. It was as though I sat in 
my office and he came and made me a present of 
his money. I guess it was his father who had accumu- 
lated the fortune; and now the son had got it and 
had come to New York City, to swell it bigger, as 
he thought. A fat calf makes the sweetest veal. 
Seeing he was anxious, I took him into a pool which 
I was carrying on just then for the purpose of Bull- 
ing Erie shares. Parker came to me. 

" Mr. Drew," said he, " I'm willing to take charge 
of this, if you say so. You have so many irons in 
the fire, you ought to be glad to have a partner help 
you out with one of them. I am willing to take this 
particular stock campaign off from your shoulders. 
But I will probably need your help before I get 
through. I think I can boost the stock a number 
of points. But in order to get it to the notch where 
it will stick and take care of itself, I will need more 
funds than I individually have. Therefore, at the 
right time, will you help me out .f*" 

I said of course I would; I'd see him through. 
And at the time I meant it. Because I owned a 
large block of Erie shares just then, and was only 
too pleased to have some one boost them for me. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 191 

He thanked me and went away, saying that he 
would get to work at once. 

I soon saw that he was carrying out the plan with 
energy. A flood of buying orders poured into the 
market. Erie rose point by point. I was glad. 
Each point of rise meant a dollar more in my 
pocket for every share I held. 

By and by, however, I became less BulHsh than 
I had been. Parker's buying now had boosted it 
from 100 clean up to 123. I thought it a good time 
to get rid of my holdings. It never does to over- 
stay a market. Wait one day too long, and you 
will sometimes miss it altogether. In Wall Street 
the secret of success is to know when the iron is 
hot and then strike. Parker, when he entered into 
this dicker with me, had almost three hundred 
thousand dollars. So I issued an order to my broker 
(unbeknownst to anybody) to sell. 

I didn't dump the shares onto Parker all at once. 
That wouldn't have been good policy. With too 
big an amount to take care of all of a sudden, he'd 
have become discouraged. So I fed the stock out 
to him by driblets, so to speak — didn't want to 
destroy his absorbing power. I offered it only in 
thousand lots, and even in lots of five hundred 
shares each. 

I was glad to see that he took them; and this, 
too, without suspecting anything. The blocks being 
so small, he like as not thought they were coming 



192 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

from scattered parties throughout the country, here 
one and there one. Towards the end, however, in 
order to get rid of all my holdings whilst the price 
was at the top-notch and before the market broke, I 
dumped rather heavy blocks of it onto him. At 
one time I was scared. I feared I had overdone 
the thing. Because the price sagged like old Sambo. 
It looked as though I had unloaded onto Parker a 
jag of the stock that was too heavy for him. But 
he must have got under the load like a plucky fellow; 
for the stock was taken, and still the price held up 
fine. 

He came in to see me soon after. He was pretty 
well het up by this work of supporting the market. 
He wiped the sweat from his forehead as he sat down 
in my inner office. When I saw him come in 
I was anxious first along. I feared he had discovered 
who it was that had been feeding all of that stock 
to him. But I was quickly put at ease. He was 
still friendly towards me. I saw that he was not 
of a suspicious turn of mind. 

"Well, Uncle," said he, as he sat down (every- 
body called me Uncle); "Fve been pounded pretty 
hard the last day or two, as you probably have seen 
from the tape. But I didn't let them break my lines. 
Once or twice they had me pretty near bushed. But 
I pulled myself together each time. And I think 
I have held my own." 

"Why, what is it.?" said I. "I haven't followed 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 193 

Erie stock for the last few days as close as I do 
sometimes. Fve * been busy with other matters. 
Anything special turned up .^" 

"Why, no," said he; "that is, nothing disastrous; 
because I was able to take care of it. But some 
good-sized blocks of Erie have been coming onto 
the market the last two days. In fact, the market 
developed softness several days ago. At that time 
a whole lot of small offerings came in, brought out, 
I supposed, by the tempting prices at which the stock 
now stands. These lots didn't trouble me much. 
But the blocks which have been coming in the last 
two days have given me lots of bother. I took care 
of them. But it has cost me a pretty penny. I saw 
that it wouldn't do to fall down now, when we must 
have absorbed pretty near the whole floating supply 
of the stock, and have got the thing pretty near where 
we want it. I have accepted every share that was 
offered. But it has drained me dry to do it. I find 
I will have to call on you for that help which you 
promised. I was hoping at one time that I wouldn't 
need to. But I now see that I will, and have come 
to ask for it." 

I had expected this call from Parker. I had been 
sort of dreading it. I knew he would be miffed 
when I told him what I would have to tell. I never 
did like a scene. In fact, I didn't know but what 
he might even get mad and try to do something rash. 

"I'm sorry, my son," said I, when he had finished 



194 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

his speech. "But I don't know as I can let you 
have that money, after all." 

He looked up at me with a start, like a colt when 
it's suddenly frightened. I was glad that I had a 
clerk just outside the door of my private office, 
within easy reach if I should need him; because 
you never can tell what these Westerners will do 
when they get excited. 

"What's that .^" said he. "I don't believe I under- 
stood you." 

"Why, it's just as I said," I replied. "I find that 
I'm not able to let you have that money." I saw 
that it was best to have the thing over quickly. Bad 
news to a man is like pulling a tooth. If you fool 
around with the forceps sort of tender-like, it will 
make it all the harder. The kindest course is to 
be stern-hearted just for a minute; yank the tooth 
out, then it's all over. That's what I did now. I 
handled him without mittens. I plumped the 
announcement out at him in straightforward fashion: 
"Couldn't possibly do it. My money is tied up 
just now tight as a fiddle-string." 

"But," said he, and his voice got very low and 
quiet, " Mr. Drew, you promised." 

"Tut, tut," said I; "just a mere word thrown out 
in casual talk. I didn't intend it to be in the nature 
of a hard and fast agreement. There wasn't any- 
■ thing put down in writing." 

"I know that," said he; "but between men, a 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 195 

gentlemen's agreement is even more binding than 
documents plastered over v^ith seals and a notary's 
stamp." 

"Well," said I, "you'll have to excuse me from 
going into a discussion of the matter with you. I 
haven't the time just now. I have some important 
business on hand that I've got to see to." And I 
arose, to bring the interview to an end — I never 
believe in handling a nettle tenderly. I didn't 
want to get into an argument with him. Didn't know 
what he might do if he got worked up. Hot-headed 
fellows sometimes get very sudden if they are het up 
by an argument. "I'm sorry, my son, if you are 
disappointed. It's unavoidable. I can't help you 
with any money. I shall have to bid you good 
morning." 

He bit his lip. His face turned white all of a 
sudden. "Of course, Mr. Drew," said he, "you'll 
give me a chance to say this: That I am by this 
act of yours a ruined man! The earnings of a life- 
time have been swept away! Unless you keep your 
promise, I and my family are at this moment reduced 
to beggary! Do I understand that your answer is 
final.?" 

"It's final," said I; "if you've lost any money, 
go and begin earning it back. Every time a sheep 
bleats it loses a mouthful." (This hope I held out 
to him was of course a rather small plaster for a 
big sore. But it was the best I could do.) 



196 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

I started at once to the door to let him out. I 
could see that he was bothered considerable. For he 
sort of staggered as he walked across the floor. 
And his eyes glazed over, something like a steer 
just after he has been hit. He didn't say good-bye. 
He stumbled out through the office door and went 
away. 

I was glad when the interview was over. I knew 
that I'd have to go through it; and now was relieved. 
Parker took it in a different way from what I had 
looked for. Instead of flaring up, he took it so 
quiet-like that I kind of felt sorry for him. But 
I wasn't in Wall Street for my health. If he thought 
I was going to lose money in order to help him, he 
had come to the wrong shop, that's all. Business 
is business. When I had told him some days before 
that I'd help him out with the money, I was in a 
different position from what I now was. For I 
had now disposed of most of my Erie stock. So 
that I'd have been a fool to loan Parker any money 
to keep the price of the stock up. When I have 
sold out my shares it isn't to my interest to keep 
the price up. It's to my interest then to have the 
price of that particular stock tumble just as fast 
and as far as it will. Because I can then buy it 
in once more. 

And that is what happened in the present case. 
It wasn't an hour or two after Parker left my office, 
before Erie fell off several points. For Parker 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 197 

having now been taken out of the way (I guess the 
Street hasn't seen hide nor hair of him since), was 
no longer there to support the market. The price 
fell rapidly. The slump was also helped by Secre- 
tary Chase, who came into Wall Street just now 
and borrowed ^35,000,000 for the Government. 
Erie dropped to ninety-nine. Thus I was able to 
buy back dog-cheap the shares Fd sold at the top 
of the market. I took a slice out of Parker on this 
deal which helped my fortune considerable. 



XXI 



ONE day, about this time, I was in my office 
at 22 William Street, when the boy came 
in and said there was a man in the outer 
office by the name of Fisk. "He wants to see you 
on a business matter/' 

"Send him in,'* said I. I said it to the boy sort 
of careless-like, not expecting anything much. It 
was a name that didn't mean anything to me. 
Thought it was some stranger coming to see me on a 
small affair or other. I turned to the stock ticker 
once more, and to reading the quotations. The 
door opened. A man came in. 

"I'm Fisk," said he. He stepped up and took 
my hand. He was as brisk as a bottle of ale. "James 
Fisk, Junior, of New York and Boston. * Jim Fisk,' 
the boys call me, where I'm known. But I suppose 
here I'll have to put on all the lugs. Mr. Drew, I 
have come to sell those Stonington shares of yours." 

I got my hand loose from his, and sat down. I 
got my breath after a minute. Not that I was mad. 
Somehow or other, you couldn't get mad at the 
fellow — he had such a hearty way about him. And 
he was so almighty sure of himself, he made every- 

198 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 199 

body else sure of him, too. He was a big man, 
heavy-set, with blond hair, and a moustache the 
colour of a Jersey cow. He wore a velvet vest, cut 
low, so as to show well-nigh half of his shirt-bosom. 
His hands were fat, and had rings all over them. 
I could see he was a fellow to scrape up an acquain- 
tance on short notice. 

"And may I ask who is this Mr. James Fisk, 
Junior.?" I managed to inquire, after I had got my 
breath again. (I always did have a knack of being 
very cold and dignified when I wanted to.) 

"Of course, you can ask," said he. "Fll give 
you the whole pedigree, if you want it. Fm from 
Vermont — one of your Green Mountain boys. I 
was a peddler up there. Got to be the Prince of 
Peddlers. That's what they called me. My father 
was a peddler before me. Everybody around Ben- 
nington knows my father. But they know me a 
mighty sight better. I put my father in the shade 
before Fd been a peddler six months. Fm one of the 
go-ahead sort. Never was cut out to be a moss- 
gatherer. It's push with me — all the time. And 
if you want to entrust me with the sale of this rail- 
road stock of yours, Fll prove it to you. Up there 
in Vermont I had hardly started out before I had 
a peddler's wagon with four horses. * Jobber in 
silks, shawls, dress goods, jewelry, silver-ware and 
Yankee notions' — that's the way my sign read. 
To see me come into a town, you'd have thought the 



200 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

circus had arrived. In fact, I got the idea from a 
circus I used to travel with, Van Amberg's — that 
was before I became a peddler." 

"What V* said I; "did you use to travel with Van 
Ambers's Menagerie .^" 

"Well, I guess. I got to be assistant doorkeeper in 
that shebang. Ever hear of it .^" 

"Ever hear of it.?'' said I. "Why, old Ike Van 
Amberg started that show of his from my part of 
the country, up in Putnam County. I know some- 
thing about the menagerie business myself." 

"Is that so.?" said he. "Shake again, pardner! 
I didn't know when I came in here that I was get- 
ting among my own kith and kin." 

"Wliy, yes," said I; "I was in the circus business 
before you was born. Came near being in it yet, 
for that matter." 

"I want to know!" said he. "Say, did you have 
the wild mule, same's they do now, for the farmer 
boys to ride *once around the ring for five dollars' .?" 

"No," said I. "We hadn't thought of that back 
in my time." 

"Then you don't know what fun it is," said he. 
"Lord, it used to split my sides with laughing! In 
our show we had a mule picked up somewhere in 
our travels. Picked him up for a song, for that 
matter. He was so wild, the farmer we bought him 
of couldn't do anything with him. But we broke 
him. That is, we broke him enough for one of the 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 201 

clowns to ride, provided he backed him in the right 
way, and sat just right all the time. But as for any- 
body else — might as well have tried to ride a 
cyclone. At every performance we would take that 
mule, lead him into the centre of the ring, and then 
— *Whoa there, January! Offer five dollars to 
any person in the audience who will step down and 
ride this mule once around the track!' You'd have 
hurt yourself laughing, to see the country clod- 
hoppers try to earn that five. Sometimes, if the 
farm hand was uncommonly clever, he would man- 
age to get on top of the beast and actually ride a 
few paces. Then the fireworks would begin. The 

show has got the five dollars yet So you worked 

under canvas, too .^" 

"No, not exactly under canvas," said I. "Truth 
is, back in the early days, the menagerie didn't have 
any tent. All they had was a lot of six-foot poles 
which they stuck up in the ground, and stretched 
canvas around them, leaving the top unroofed." 
And I went on to tell of circus life back in my day. 

This sort of broke the ice. We got talking about 
old menagerie days. Before I knew it we were good 
friends. Fisk told me that after he'd got into the 
peddler business, he pushed it so hard that before 
long he had several wagons out. They would all 
meet in a town, pitch their camp and have half the 
population around them inside of an hour. In 
fact, he did so well, bought dry goods in such quan- 



202 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

tides, that the house in Boston which suppHed him, 
Jordan, Marsh & Co., began to notice him, and 
before long gave him a job as travelhng salesman. 
No sooner had he moved to Boston than he got 
acquainted with a woman there, who was influential 
with some of the Massachusetts politicians in Wash- 
ington (Jimmy always did have a way of getting 
around women). The house he worked for had a 
lot of blankets they couldn't get rid of. Fisk said 
he would do the trick. So he got this woman to 
give him letters of introduction to one or two big 
men from Massachusetts in Washington. He went 
down there — it was just when the War was getting 
under way — kept open house for a few days, got 
some Congressmen in with him, and sold the whole 
batch of blankets to the United States Government 
at a high figure. He persuaded Uncle Sam that 
they were just the thing for the soldier boys. 

Fisk, also, it seems, made some money on the side 
while he was in Washington, smuggling cotton 
through the Union lines. The blockade on the 
Southern ports, had by this time got so tight that 
cotton was bringing war prices. "Nothing like 
knowing an opportunity when you see it," said Fisk, 
in telling me this part of his life. "There down 
South was cotton stacked up in great piles — per- 
fectly useless and waiting for a chance to get to mar- 
ket. On the other side was the North, hungry for 
cotton. Says I to myself: *Jim Fisk, Junior, you 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 203 

are to be the middle-man between these two needs/ 
So I set to work. I got the cotton through." 

" How did you do it .^ " said I. 

"Tm not telHng," said he; "but I got it through. 
This war is a great thing for business, anyway," 
said he; "don't you think so ?" 

I said that depended. 

"Of course," said he; "I mean for business of the 
right kind. You stock-market riggers here are bag- 
ging money hand over fist. If the War lasts long 
enough, you won't have vaults big enough to store 
away your coin. I always did think, anyhow, that 
John Brown was a bully fellow, for starting this war. 
Tell you what. Drew, those soldier boys in blue are 
our best friends. 'Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys 
are marching,' and you Wall Streeters rake in the 
shekels." 

I answered that I thought Uncle Sam's soldier 
boys were indeed earning their wages. And although 
it would cost an almighty big sum in taxes to pay the 
bills when the War was over, still, take it all in all, 
perhaps it was money well spent. For it certainly 
was making good times in Wall Street. 

Well, Fisk's success in selling the blankets to 
Uncle Sam gave him a handle over Jordan, Marsh 
& Co. He went back to them while the sale was 
still hanging fire, and said: "I've got the contract. 
Now I want you to take me into the firm." 

They didn't appear very anxious. But Fisk said 



204 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

he had some of the contracts signed in his own 
name, and unless they took him in, they couldn't 
have the orders. So they had to give in. He 
became one of the "Co." of the firm. 

"But," continued Fisk, "our partnership didn't 
just turn out very scrumptious. Those Boston 
merchants are so all-fired respectable. They are 
too conservative. They think the good name of the 
house with smaller profits is worth more than a 
smaller name with bigger profits. We didn't hit 
it off well together, and the upshot was, they 
very soon asked me to leave. I did — for a remu- 
neration. They paid me sixty thousand dollars to 
get out. I started in the dry-goods business myself, 
at the corner of Summer and Chauncey Streets, 
Boston. But it didn't go. Came to New York 
with what money I had left. I started in as a Wall 
Street operator. Result, lost every cent I had. 
This was a year ago. Had a silver watch — nary 
another thing. I was as flat as a nigger's nose. 
Am yet, for that matter. But Tm going to be a 
rich man yet. They can't keep me down. And I 
have come to you, Uncle, with this Stonington 
proposition. It will help make you richer, and 
it'll bring something to Jim Fisk, too." 

I asked him how he proposed to go about the 
deal. 

"I'll tell you," said he. "I learned that there 
is a Boston crowd that would like to buy out your 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 205 

interest in the Stonington Railroad. I have found 
out who they are. Give me the business. Let me 
handle it for you. Fll go down there and sell one 
or all of your shares of that road, in a way that will 
make your eyes open." 

We talked it over this way and that. The visit 
ended by my naming a figure at which I'd let the 
stock go. He went out. In a few days back he 
came — had the papers all made out, bill of sale, 
contracts, blank receipts — everything. I turned 
over the stock to his Boston people. They paid 
the money. I got the cash. Fisk made a nice little 
amount as his commission. 

This is the way Fisk and I got acquainted. He 
handled this sale of Stonington stock so knowing, I 
saw he was a gumptious fellow. I said to him that 
if he wanted to start in again as a stock broker, I'd 
help him along — would turn a good share of my 
business in his direction. He jumped at it. So 
the firm of Fisk and Belden was formed. Belden 
was the partner that I put in with Fisk, in order to 
accommodate his father, Henry Belden, an old friend 
of mine. Brother Belden's preaching and testi- 
monies at the camp-meeting grounds outside the 
village of Sing Sing were, before he got the paralytic 
stroke, full of power and of the witness of the spirit. 
He was a camp-meeting shouter, old Brother Henry. 
To hear his "Glory Hallelujahs" in a love feast 
would have done your heart good. When I can 



2o6 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

do a good turn to a man such as that, I feel like 
doing it. So I gave his son, young Belden, a chance. 
Very soon I was using this firm of Fisk & Belden 
for most of my important deals. A big operator's 
business has to be done on the quiet. The relation- 
ship between a Wall Street operator and his broker 
is a close one. In order to manipulate the market, 
you must keep mum while you are doing it. The 
broker is the only one besides yourself who knows 
what you're doing. He is in a position to give you 
away if he wants to. So I was glad to have a 
brokerage house that I could be confidential with. 
Pretty soon Fisk and I were in a lot of deals together, 
and in Erie most of all. 



XXII 

THE Erie war was now about to open. It 
was the biggest fight I was ever in. So 
I was glad I had got an able helper like 
Jim Fisk; for I was going to need partners now as 
never before. 

It was a fight, as anybody might know, between 
Vanderbilt and me. Pretty much all our lives we 
have been fighting each other. When he had a 
good thing, it always kind of seemed as though I 
wanted it, too; and when I had a good thing, he 
never slept easy till he had a finger in it. That 
had been the case with steamboats, and it was now 
to be the case, also, with the Erie Railroad. 

Vanderbilt's make-up and mine were different. 
I suppose that accounts for our everlastingly cross- 
ing horns. His way was to break down opposition, 
by rushing straight through it; my way was to go 
around it. He was the dog, I the cat. A cat believes 
in going soft-footed — in keeping its claws hid till 
the time comes to show them. A dog goes with a 
big bow-wow; my plan has always been to go at a 
thing quieter. A cat won't spring at a dog from 
in front — 'tisn't good tactics. She gets around on 

207 



2o8 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

the flank, claws the dog from behind, and so does a 
lot of damage without being in any danger herself. 

The Commodore was a lordly fellow. He used to 
drive a team of horses, and would go riding up Fifth 
Avenue as though he owned both sides of it. His 
house was down on Washington Square among the i 
silk-stockings. In winter he would wear a fur- 
lined coat and a stove-pipe hat; was very proud of 
his person. As for me, I was never a hand for vain- 
glory. Top-boots, such as I used to wear in drover 
days, have always been good enough for me. And 
I never could see the use of paying expensive prices 
to a tailor when you can get a suit ready-made for 
less than half the sum. As for cutting a wide swath, 
I never did take to it. My turn-out of one horse and 
a doctor's gig was good enough for me. When the 
Broadway stages started in, they were cheaper yet; 
so I used them. 

Some of my friends used to scold me because I 
didn't dress up. They'd say: "Uncle Dan, why 
on earth do you walk around with such an old stick 
as that for a cane.^" But I told them I wasn't 
proud. That stick had once been the handle of an 
almighty good umbrella. And now that the umbrella 
part was of no use any more, I felt it would be a 
shame to throw away the stick; because the stick 
was in just as good a condition as when I had bought 
the umbrella years before. 

Another difference between the Commodore and 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 209 

me was that he was by make-up a BulHsh fellow, 
whereas most of my life I have been on the Bear 
side of the market. It used to be one of his mottoes : 
" Never sell short." Even in the darkest hours of the 
Civil War, he had lots of faith in the future of the 
country. He seemed to think that in America 'most 
any kind of stock would go up and be valuable if 
he only waited long enough. "I bide my time," 
he used to say to me, when I would tell him he'd 
better sell such and such a stock and get it off his 
hands. "Get it off my hands ?" he'd exclaim. "Not 
by a jugful! I bought that stock as an investment; 
it's going to reach par some day, and don't you for- 
get It. 

Yes, he was a natural-born hoper. I have always 
been more conservative — have never allowed 
myself to paint the future in too bright colours. 
The Commodore made most of his money by stocks 
going up. I made most of mine by stocks going 
down. I wish now I'd been a Bull instead of a Bear. 
Because a Bull makes money when everybody's 
happy, that is, when stocks are on the upward move; 
so that people are willing to see him get rich. But 
a Bear makes his money when other people are 
unhappy. Because, in order for him to make, 
others have got to lose; for him to get rich means that 
there is a line of bankrupts in his train; and people 
cuss him so for taking money away from them, that his 
fortune doesn't give him so very much satisfaction. 



2IO THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

Vanderbilt's faith in the future of our country 
sometimes led him into reckless expenditures. Dur- 
ing the Civil War he was willing to have that con- 
flict come to an end, even though it was making 
good business for us operators in Wall Street; because 
he figured that, with the country prosperous once 
more, he would be prosperous also. He even gave 
a million-dollar boat outright to the Government, 
for use as a gun-boat, to help hurry the War to an 
end. He seemed to think the country's interests 
and his own were one and the same — a position 
which leads a fellow into all kinds of extravagance. 
It's all right to love your country; but a fellow ought 
to love himself, too. I loaned some of my Stoning- 
ton Line boats to the Government during the War; 
but I charged rent. In the year '62 alone, Abe 
Lincoln paid me ^350,000 for the use of the boats. 
So I was really sorry when the Civil War was over. 
For then an era of prosperity set in; and prosperity 
isn't good for a Bear operator. 

The Commodore gave a million dollars to Vander- 
bilt University — right out of hand. He didn't 
seem to have any fear of losing his fortune and dying 
poor. I have believed in giving sort of cautious-like. 
I gave a quarter-million as an endowment to found 
Drew Theological Seminary. But I kept the prin- 
cipal in my own hands — only paid over the interest 
each year — that is, I paid the interest as long as 
I was able. I have always believed that a man 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 211 

should be handier with a rake than with a 
fork. 

Well, the Erie fight was between Vanderbilt and me. 
I had been the ruling spirit in Erie now for ten years, 
and had made so much money out of that road 
that other people got jealous. Part of those ten 
years was Civil War time. Stocks were bobbing up 
and down like a boy's kite. I was on the inside 
and could take advantage of these jumps. 

The Civil War was over; Vanderbilt now vowed 
that he would get control of the Erie Road and put 
me and my crowd out of business for good and all. 
He said we were nothing but a nest of gamblers, that 
we were unsettling the entire market by our specu- 
lations, and that he wouldn't feel safe for his other 
properties until the Erie Railroad had also been 
placed in what he called safe hands. So he set out 
to buy a controlling interest in the stock. 

I guess what made him so mad was a "Convert- 
ible Bond" scheme that I worked about this time. 
The Erie Road wanted three million dollars to make 
some improvements. I loaned her the money, and 
took as security for the loan three million dollars 
of bonds which were convertible into stock; and also 
twenty-eight thousand shares of unissued stock 
which the road just then had on hand. This pro- 
vided me in all with fifty-eight thousand shares of 
stock. Thus fortified — and when the Street didn't 
know that I held these shares — I went onto the 



212 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

Exchange and sold Erie heavily short. Erie was 
then at 95, and promised to go still higher. People 
reckoned that I was a reckless plunger. The weeks 
ran along. Pretty soon it came time for me to 
deliver. The price held strong at 95. My enemies 
began to snicker. They said I was cornered. But 
I took the twenty-eight thousand shares I had kept 
up my sleeve, and dumped them into the market 
all to once. It was probably the biggest surprise 
Wall Street up to that time had known. Prices were 
knocked into a cocked hat. Erie gave one plunge 
— fell to 47. Which means, I made the other fel- 
lows pay me ^95 a share for stock which was cost- 
ing me now only ^47. So I cleaned up ^48 on 
every share dealt in. It was the finest scoop I had 
ever made. It is true, those 58,000 shares had 
been intrusted to me only to hold as security until 
the road should pay back my loan. But in a busi- 
ness deal, you can't stop for every little technicality. 
Vanderbilt said that sort of thing had to stop. 
And he was going to be the one to stop it. So he 
started in. He didn't try to conceal his moves. He 
let everybody know. He went out in the open mar- 
ket and made his bids. He said that the Erie Road, 
in spite of all the dirty water — as he called it — 
in its stock, could be made once more into a divi- 
dend-earning property; and that it would be worth 
money to him and to the public generally to make 
it into a good road once more. At least he was 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 213 

willing to put his fortune into the attempt. So he 
gave his brokers unlimited orders. " Buy Erie," 
was what he told them. " Buy it at the lowest figure 
you can; but buy it!" And he swore an awful oath 
that the moment he got control of the road, there 
would be such a cleaning out of the Erie stable as 
it hadn't known for years. 

One of his first moves was to get in with a Boston 
set that owned a large block of the stock — the 
" Boston, Hartford and Erie" crowd. Almost before 
I knew it, he had worked up this combination among 
the directors, so that I was likely to be defeated for 
reelection to the Erie Board. I went to the Commo- 
dore to soften him down. I said Vd try to do better 
from now on, if heM let me stay in the Board. 
Besides, he needed me, even though maybe I 
wasn't just the kind of an Erie manager that he'd 
like to have. He thought I was a selfish director; 
but there was a set of men now getting in who were 
really and wilfully thievish. 

"You think I'm a director who is working only 
for my own pocket," said I. "Well, I'll promise 
from now on to work for the interests of the road. 
But there is a set of bad men now getting in, who 
are unregenerate. Commodore, you can't fight 
them alone. What you need is a partner who 
is on the inside, and who can, therefore, fight those 
fellows for you better than you can do it your- 
self." 



214 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

"Yes," said he, "but where in time could I find 
such a man ?" 

"Fm the one," and I spoke up good and prompt. 

He laughed a great big laugh. (Vanderbilt had 
a hearty way of laughing, as though he wasn't afraid 
of anything or anybody. He used to poke fun at 
me — on the occasions when he and I were on good 
terms — because I didn't laugh a good loud laugh 
like he did. "Why in thunder, Dan, don't you 
laugh when you set out to do it," he used to say, 
"and quit that hen cackle of yours, which is no nearer 
a real laugh than one of my old Staten Island peri- 
augers would be to a modern paddle-wheel boat.^") 
He gave one of those laughs of his now. 

"That would be a bully good idea!" he said. 
"You are just the fellow to take in as confidential 
friend and partner. Drew, you're as crooked as a 
worm fence. You'd betray me inside of twenty- 
four hours." 

"I wouldn't betray you at all," said I. "I guess 
I haven't forgotten the time when we used to be 
friends together in the old steamboat days. Why, 
back there in that Waterwitch affair " 

"Yes, yes," said he. "I remember old steam- 
boat days. We have known each other quite a 
while, haven't we ^. I don't know but what I might 
give you one more trial." He thought for a spell. 
"Do you really think, Dan, if I took you back, that 
you could play fair V^ 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 215 

"I don't believe anything about it," said I. "I 
know I could. And I'm in a position to do you a 
whole lot of help." 

"I declare, I believe I'll try it," said he. "But 
wait. I gave my promise to put you out. The 
Boston crowd wants to get rid of you. And I told 
them that at this next annual meeting I'd see to it 
that you were not re-elected." 

"Yes," said I; "but you can tell them you have 
changed your mind." 

"That isn't the way I do things," said he. "A 
promise is a promise." 

"Well, if that is the way you feel," I answered, 
"why not work it this way ^ We'll go ahead and hold 
the election. I will be left out. We'll put a 
dummy in the place instead of me. Thus you'll be 
keeping your promise with the Boston crowd. Then, 
after the election is over, the dummy can resign and 
I will be appointed in his place." 

"That's certainly a fruitful noddle you've got 
there, Uncle," said the Commodore. "I don't just 
take to that way of getting out of the difficulty. 
But maybe it's as good as any. We'll call it 
settled." 

The election was held. My name didn't appear 
in the list of those reelected to the Board. It looked 
as though I was out of Erie for good and all. But 
the next day the dummy resigned — said that on fur- 
ther thought he was not able to take it and would 



2i6 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

have to be relieved. We relieved him. I stepped 
into his shoes. I was back into my old place. 

Now, I was ready for work. I started in. There 
was no time to be lost. Vanderbilt would soon have 
complete control of Erie unless I blocked him. 
Already I had Fisk with me as a partner. I needed 
another man. This other man I found in Jay 
Gould. 

Jay had been worming his way inside of Erie for 
some time back. He had given up writing his- 
tories — had also sold his tannery business out in 
Pennsylvania. He had come to New York with a 
patent rat-trap to sell. Then he got into the Street. 
First along he dealt in small railroads. But when 
he saw what a bag of money I was making out of 
Erie he began to invest in its stock. He got in with 
some of the stock-holders, and by now had become 
a director himself and one of the powers in the road. 
I took him now as a partner. He was at the head 
of a chque in the Board of Directors that I needed 
in my fight against Vanderbilt. So he and Jim 
Fisk and I now stood together like three blood- 
brothers against the Commodore, our common foe. 

Gould was just the criss-cross of Fisk. He was 
an undersized chap, and quiet as a mouse. I never 
liked his face. It was dark, and covered all over 
with whiskers so you could hardly see him. As to 
Fisk, you couldn't help but like him. Jimmy did 
me one or two dirty deals before he died. However, 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 217 

I could take it from him, he was that big and warm- 
hearted in it all. But Jay was so almighty silent. 
And he wasn't a healthy man, either. He was as 
lean as a parson's barn. Never seemed to me that 
he ate enough. Jimmy used to put his purse into 
his belly. Jay put his belly into his purse. So that, 
though he himself was thin, his purse was fat as a 
porker. Jimmy used to say: 

"The difference between Jay and me is, I have 
more trouble to get my dinner than to digest it, and 
Jay has more trouble to digest it than to get it." 

As I said, I couldn't help but like Fisk, no matter 
how wicked a man he was; and he was wicked. He 
was very carnal. The way he used to carry on with 
women was something scandalous. He used to 
bring them right down to the office. Didn't make 
any bones about it. He would drive down in a 
barouche with a darkey coachman and four horses, 
and have two or three ladies of pleasure in the car- 
riage with him. Sometimes we would be in the 
middle of a hard day's work. A carriage would 
drive up; a cQuple of ballet dancers would get out, 
bounce into the office where we were, trip up to Fisk 
and say, "Hello, we've come to spend the day." 

I'd look up as much as to say: "You're going 
to put them out, aren't you .?" 

But he would answer my look and say: "Uncle, 
I've got a previous engagement with my Sweet-lips 
here, and this railroad matter will have to wait over 



2i8 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

until to-morrow. And this other female charmer 
here — Mr. Drew, allow me to make you acquainted 
with the prima donna of ''Mazeppa'* and "The 
French Spy." Then he would send out for a res- 
taurant man, have victuals brought in, and would 
serve up a banquet to his ballet dancers right in his 
private office. He wouldn't care what the expense 
was; and he didn't mind whether he had known the 
girls before or not. Sometimes they would bring 
in another girl, one he had never met, and say: 

" We've brought Annie along. You must meet her. 
They all say she's the sassiest queen in town." 

"That's fine," he would answer; "and she's a lu-lu, 
too; she shall enjoy the carousal with us. The more 
the merrier. The world can never have too many 
girls of the kind that are toyful and cuddlesome." 

I used to scold Jimmy for these wenching bouts of 
his; but my scoldings didn't count for much. 

"That's all right. Uncle,"' he'd answer. "You're 
old and dried up. There's no fire in your veins. 
But for a gay young buck like me, a little spice in 
the midst of a hard day's work is needed. I never 
was one of your Josephs — woman-proof." 

So I didn't have much peace of soul with either 
of these partners of mine. Gould, quiet as a clam; 
and Fisk, the devil's own. But both of them were 
handy in a stock-market dicker; and that was what 
I needed just now. The Erie war was rapidly com- 
ing on. I had to have partners that could help. 



XXIII 

WHEN you set out to ride a colt, see that 
your saddle is girt good and tight. 
That's what I did now. I didn't want 
to tackle the Commodore before I had first made 
good and ready. This is the way I set about it: 

At one of the meetings of the Erie Board of Direc- 
tors I got the matter of steel rails to take the place 
of the old and unsafe iron rails acted upon by the 
Board. Our road, further, was being hurt because 
it had a six-foot track, whilst the other railroads 
were being built with only a narrow, that is, the 
present standard-gauge, track. Their cars couldn't 
go on our road, nor ours on their road. It had been 
proposed that the Erie lay a third rail inside the 
other two rails, in order that narrow-gauge rolling 
stock could run on the track in the same train, if 
need be, with our own broad-gauge cars. This, 
and the steel rails to i:eplace the iron ones, were two 
such needed improvements that I now made them an 
excuse for getting the road to issue some new shares 
of stock. By means of my control of the Executive 
Committee, I got them to vote to issue ten million 
dollars of convertible bonds, the proceeds of which 

219 



220 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

— so they supposed — were to go into these 
improvements. 

The advantage of convertible bonds was this: 
There was a provision in the charter forbidding the 
Erie Road to issue new stock except at par — 
which wouldn't have suited my purpose. Bonds 
would have been equally useless, seeing they are 
of no value in stock-exchange dickers. Bonds con- 
vertible into stock, however, were just the thing. 
Because it was only another name for an issue of 
stock at the market rate. 

So now I had one hundred thousand shares of 
stock at my disposal, whenever I should care to turn 
the trick. Of course, legally speaking, these shares 
were not just at my disposal, either; because they 
were meant as a means of raising money to be put 
into the improvements and repairs that the road then 
needed. But all's fair in love and war. And in this 
particular case I felt that I was more in need of this 
nine or ten million than the Erie Road was. The 
road was under my management, because I con- 
trolled the Executive Committee, and, therefore, 
the finances. I felt that I was entitled to a few 
pickings, as it were. It's an ill cook that can't lick 
his own fingers. So, instead of using the money to 
buy steel rails, I had the old iron rails turned, in 
order to bring the unworn outside edge onto the 
inside now. Of course, this wasn't altogether as 
safe as new steel rails would have been. But I 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 221 

needed in my stock-market operations the money 
which this new bond issue was raising. And inas- 
much as I had put in a good deal of valuable time 
as treasurer of the Erie Railroad, I felt I had a right 
now to sluice off some of her revenues into my own 
pocket. When you own a cow, you own her milk 
also. As to legal objections, by getting one of the 
judges on my side — as will be seen later — we 
got the law courts so jummixed up that they didn't 
know where they stood; and so the law couldn't 
touch me. 

Whilst in the midst of these busy preparations, 
I had to cease operations for a couple of days and 
go out to the formal opening of my theological sem- 
inary at Madison, N. J. It was an occasion of great 
spiritual refreshment, and Til write about it later. 
Just now I must finish telling about this Erie Rail- 
road affair. 

Supplied with ammunition in the shape of this 
fine, big issue of stock, I was now prepared for war. 
And I wasn't a moment too soon, either. Vander- 
bilt was already at work. He was out in the open 
market buying Erie with the boldness of a lion. 
I guess he was figuring that I was on his side, or he 
might never have been so bold and confident. Any- 
how, he was going ahead as though there was 
nothing now that could stop him. I didn't say 
anything. I thought I'd let him go ahead, and sort 
of take him by surprise when the time came. 



222 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

Vanderbilt wanted to buy Erie shares. All right. 
I was willing he should buy all he wanted. In fact, 
I thought I would help him in the matter. So I 
went onto the market, and sold Erie short in enor- 
mous quantities. 

My friends thought I was going it wild. "What 
in the world, Uncle, are you up to .?" they said to me. 
"Don't you remember those luckless Bears that 
went short of Harlem and got their feet caught in the 
trap ^ That's just what you're doing now. The 
Commodore is going to corner you tight as a fly in a 
tar-barrel." But I only smiled. 

The Commodore now learned that I was against 
him, and got very much het up. His crowd 
taunted me. 

"You're already beginning to count your pro- 
fits r* said I to them. "Don't boil the pap till the 
child is born, that's all." And I went on selling the 
stock short. 

Vanderbilt now made a move which he hadn't 
tried before. He went to the law courts and got out 
an injunction forbidding me and my crowd to issue 
any more shares of Erie stock. This last was a 
proceeding I was not willing to stand for. As chief 
director of Erie, I had a right to operate her as I 
saw fit. But here was Vanderbilt going to the law 
courts and putting a higher power over Erie's affairs 
than I was. He was tying my hands. So I went 
into the law-court business, too. I called a council 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 223 

of Gould and Fisk. We decided, since Vanderbilt 
had got a judge of the Supreme Court on his side 
to issue injunctions for him, that we'd get a judge 
too. So we went out to Binghamton, and got a judge 
there. Vanderbilt's judge had enjoined us from 
issuing any more Erie stock. This new judge of 
ours now got out an injunction commanding us to 
issue more stock. He wasn't a New York City 
judge. But he had as much power, so far as his 
legal standing was concerned. Because these Circuit 
Court judges work side by side. Any one judge has 
power extending over the entire state. Ordinarily 
they are supposed to stand by each other; but this 
was just after the Civil War, when things were 
topsy-turvy. Johnson was being impeached. The 
legal machinery of the country was that unsettled, we 
could do with it 'most anything we wanted. 

When Vanderbilt had got out his injunction, 
restraining us from manufacturing any new certifi- 
cates of Erie stock, he thought that he had all the 
leaks corked up at last good and tight. He 
supposed, therefore, that in issuing orders to his 
brokers to take all the Erie that was offered, he 
wasn't in any possible danger. I went onto the 
Exchange as though nothing had happened, and 
proceeded to sell more Erie. I sold all that I could — 
didn't set any limits — agreed to deliver all the 
stock I could find buyers for. Of course, in the 
Commodore I found a ready buyer. 



224 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

People now thought me plumb crazy. "Uncle 
Daniel has gone clean off his head," said they. "It's 
got to be second nature with him to sell stock short. 
He goes onto the Bear side by force of habit. In 
this deal he hasn't any more chance than a grass- 
hopper in January. The Commodore has got him 
this time. He's fixed it so that Drew and his crowd 
can't manufacture any new stock, and he has roped 
in all the floating supply that is still on the market. 
And yet here is Uncle Daniel still offering to deliver 
the stock in unlimited amounts. Where's he going 
to get it when these contracts mature ? Drew is 
daft. He's going it blind, and will run his head 
against a post." Thus they talked. I let them. 
I was still able to find my way around in a Wall 
Street transaction — as they soon found out. 

By and by the time drew near when these short 
contracts of mine would mature. (I say "mine." 
Of course, Fisk and Gould were with me. But I 
was the leader of the party, so I speak of it in my 
own name.) Jimmy came to me and said: "Guess 
it's about time to play our ace of trumps, don't you 
think so .? We'll make Rome howl." I said I 
guessed he was right. So we called in Jay. We 
held a council of war. We decided that the time 
had come to set off the gunpowder. 

Accordingly, we went to a printing-house and got 
them to print a hundred thousand shares of Erie. 
(It was those convertible bonds now being turned 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 225 

into stock.) Of course, the printer could turn out 
only the blank forms; but since we were the officers 
of the road, or controlled the officers, such as the 
Secretary and such-like, we could get any amount 
of printed blanks signed in legal manner and made 
thus into good financial paper. 

It was a helpful sight to see that printing press 
work so smooth and fast. For we had only a few 
days more in which to make our deliveries. All 
the Street thought we were cornered. In fact, 
Vanderbilt himself was beginning to tell around 
that he was going now to clean up the Erie stable 
inside and out — wasn't going to leave so much as 
a grease spot of us behind. It was an exciting 
time. The Street knew that big things were about to 
happen. For this was a battle of the giants. Van- 
derbilt and I were the two biggest men in Wall 
Street. When the two big roosters on the dung-pile 
cross spurs, there's going to be some feathers flying. 

Gould and Fisk stood with me watching the print- 
ing press as she turned out for us the bright, new 
stock certificates. Each one of those sheets of paper 
was of enormous value to us. Not just because of 
the amount of money it would bring in dollars. But 
this was a war, and each of these crisp certificates 
was a cannon ball, so to speak. If we could pound 
the Commodore hard enough that he wouldn't have 
time to recover between the blows but would be 
forced to knuckle under, then we'd have him at our 



226 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

mercy, and all of his property also. Besides, with 
him busted up, there would be a great smash in 
values, and we on the Bear side of the market would 
then profit all along the line. It's far more impor- 
tant in a business war to break down the man him- 
self, than to break down any particular piece of his 
property. Because when the man goes under, all of 
his fortune is at your disposal. So these bright 
new sheets of paper looked very beautiful to us. 
They were just so many additions to our ammuni- 
tion supply. I could almost have hugged that print- 
ing press, she was that friendly to us. Jimmy, of 
course, had to have his joke. 

"That injunction of the Commodore's," said he, 
"was aimed against the freedom of the press. As free- 
born Americans we couldn't stand for that. Give us 
enough rag paper and we'll hammer the everlasting 
tar out of that mariner from Staten Island." 

"Oh, come now," said Jay; "let's don't get ram- 
bunctious. We're not out of the woods yet. Our 
contracts to deliver the stock are rapidly maturing. 
We have engaged to hand over to the Commodore 
such enormous blocks of it that I can't sleep nights, 
thinking of it. And something may happen yet to get 
in our way." 

"Happen!" said Jimmy, and he was as calm as a 
cat with kittens; "I'd like to see anything happen! 
If this printing press don't break down, we'll give 
the old hog all the Erie he wants." 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 227 

I scolded him. But in my heart I was glad to 
have a partner who was so cock-sure. For we 
were in a ticklish place. If any hitch should come, 
we would certainly find ourselves in the tightest 
corner a man was ever in, and got out alive. 
Jimmy's spirit kept us in heart. Fortunately, the 
printing press didn't break down. It kept on with 
its klickety-klack, smooth as clock-work. As fast 
as the blank certificates were turned out and the 
printer's ink had dried, Fisk took them and made 
them valid by putting in the proper signatures. " The 
Devil has got hold of me," he remarked; "I might 
as well keep on signing." Soon the entire issue was 
finished, and tied up in a neat bundle at the Com- 
pany's office. The stock was now good financial 
paper. 

But there was still a danger. And because the 
amounts at stake were so high, we determined to 
take no chances. The Commodore might hear 
that our printing press had been once more at work, 
and get his judge to enforce his injunction, by 
attaching this new bunch of Erie shares. In which 
case we wouldn't have time to print any more; for 
our deliveries were maturing the very next day. The 
Commodore's judge was in New York City, right 
at the seat of war. Whereas our judge was way 
out in Binghamton; so that the Commodore could 
act more quickly than we; and this was a time when 
minutes would count. 



228 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

So we took measures. The new stock was over 
in the Erie office on West Street. We tied up the 
books of newly printed certificates in a neat paper 
bundle. Then we called the office boy and told 
him to take that bundle over to the Transfer Office 
on Pine Street. He started out with it. When he 
was just outside the door, something happened. 
He returned empty-handed, and white as a sheet. 
He said that a man — a big blonde individual, with 
a yellowish moustache and a large shirt front — had 
rushed upon him whilst he was in the hall, grabbed the 
bundle from him, and had whisked off with it before 
he could say "boo." 

"Dear, dear!" said the Secretary (he was the one 
who had been enjoined from issuing this stock) 
"that's too bad!" But he told the boy not to mind; 
he had done his best, anyhow; it wasn't his fault; 
and sent him back to his desk. We all pretended 
to be het up over the matter; but we were pretty 
calm inside. Because we could have made a pretty 
close guess as to who had grabbed the bundle away 
from the boy. But, of course, if it had come to the 
taking of evidence in court, the Secretary could now 
clear his skirts; because the stock had been snatched 
out of his keeping. That same afternoon those 
shares turned up at the office of our broker. He 
parcelled fifty thousand of them out to his sub- 
agent in ten-thousand share lots. Now we were 
ready for operations. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 229 

The next morning the Stock Exchange opened 
calm and clear, as though it was a time of perfect 
peace. The president of the Board called out the 
shares of the various railroads in usual order: 
"Union Pacific!" "Wabash!" "New York Cen- 
tral!" — no response. He met with a dead silence. 
Then he called out "Erie!" Things broke loose at 
once. One of our brokers jumped out onto the 
floor and offered a block of one thousand shares of 
Erie; he followed this up with another thousand 
that with another; until he had offered five thousand; 
shares of Erie — wanted to sell them right then and 
there. Vanderbilt's brokers took the first; two or 
three thousand-share blocks cheerfully. But it was 
noticed that they looked surprised. Then, almost 
before our first broker had got through, another 
sprang forward and offered blocks of Erie for sale — 
ten thousand in all. Our first broker followed up 
his previous offerings with five thousand more (that 
made up his ten thousand.) Still another of our 
brokers came and helped push along the landslide. 
He yelled out: "A thousand shares of Erie for sale! 
A thousand more of Erie! A block of five thou- 
sand shares of Erie!" And so on until his ten 
thousand shares were offered. 

By this time the Vanderbilt brokers were scared 
out of their wits. They got into communication 
with their master. "Hell has broke loose," they 
sent word to him. "Thirty thousand shares of 



230 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

Erie have come raining down on us in the last half- 
hour, with more coming out every minute. What 
shall we do ?" 

All the answer he gave was: "Support the mar- 
ket." 

As he didn't seem at all flustered, his brokers got 
courage, went back and took our offerings. They 
succeeded in absorbing the whole fifty thousand 
shares without letting the market sag more than a 
point or two. 

But now came the death stroke. These deliv- 
eries of stock were made right away. As soon as the 
Exchange saw that these certificates were crisp and 
new, with the printer's ink hardly dry on them, the 
secret was out. In defiance of Vanderbilt's injunc- 
tion, we had set our printing press to work. 

The landslide then broke loose. For if we had 
been able to cut the legal red tape with which Van- 
derbilt had tried to tie our hands — had found a 
way to start the printing press to work once more — 
why, it was good-night to the Commodore. Because 
there is no limit to the amount of blank shares a 
printing press can turn out. White paper is cheap 
— it is bought by the ream. Printer's ink is also 
dirt cheap. And if we could keep on working that 
kind of deal — make Vanderbilt pay us fifty or 
sixty dollars for little pieces of paper that hadn't 
cost us two cents, we would very soon have all of 
his cash ladled out of his pocket into ours. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 231 

It was, I guess, the darkest hour in Vander- 
bilt's life. He had staked his reputation and a good 
share of his fortune on this Erie fight; and now we 
had suddenly unmasked a battery that was pouring 
hot shot into his ranks thick and fast. No wonder 
his followers began to desert him. They fell off by 
twos and threes. There was a small-sized panic all 
through the Vanderbilt party. Until now they had 
looked upon their leader as able to take care of them. 
Some of them had begun to think that he was a 
sort of supernatural person, one that couldn't be 
touched by mortal hands. But now his career seemed 
to have come to an end. He was no longer the high 
and mighty one that he had been. 

This was the moment we had been waiting for. 
In war it is good generalship to know when to strike. 
We now dumped the other fifty thousand shares 
onto the floor of the Exchange all to once. The 
price, which had been at 83, dropped like a dead 
heifer. It was as though the bottom had fallen 
out — nothing was left to support things. Down 
and down and down it went, clean to 71. Consid- 
ering the number of shares involved, and the size of 
the transactions, it was the biggest stroke Wall 
Street had ever seen. The Commodore himself 
wasn't able to stand out any longer. The price 
rallied a little before the day was over, for it was 
seen that the Commodore wasn't as yet entirely 
swamped — he took all the stock that we offered. 



232 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

even the last fifty thousand, and paid over his good 
cash for it. But the market had made a fatal break. 
Nothing he or his friends could do would bring it 
back again. And the day closed with me and my 
crowd gloriously on top. 



XXIV 

THIS was Tuesday, early in March. The 
next day, Wednesday, we met at our 
Erie Railroad office on West Street, to 
count our profits. It was a happy hour. Seven 
million dollars of Vanderbilt's had been scooped 
out of his pocket into ours. Four millions of it 
was in legal-tender notes, good crisp greenbacks. 
We hardly knew where to stow the money. We 
set to work tying it up in bundles. We were in 
high spirits. Jimmy couldn't get over laughing and 
talking about the "green goods." He said how 
the Commodore was all right for Staten Island, 
but he ought to have stayed down there along with 
the other farmers; because the streets of New York 
were not safe for people who didn't know the game. 
We were all in good heart. 

Just then a messenger came and said something 
that made us sing another tune. He told us that 
processes for contempt of court were being issued 
against us, and we stood liable to arrest at any 
moment. That would mean the Ludlow Street 
Jail. I was that flustered I didn't know which way 
to turn. I thought of our Supreme Court judge 



234 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

out in Binghamton, and wondered if we could get 
him to issue an injunction enjoining Vanderbilt's 
judge from sending us to jail. But I was afraid 
we wouldn't have time to reach him. For the mes- 
sage went on to say that Vanderbilt was hopping 
mad, and was swearing by all the gods he could 
think of, that he would clap every last man of us 
behind the bars before the sun went down that 
night. 

"There's no sun to go down, anyhow,'' said 
Jimmy, looking out of the window; it was a foggy 
day, and seemed to be getting worse. 

"For heaven's sake, shut up!" said Jay; and 
I spoke up too. I said: "Jimmy, this is no time 
for your fooleries. In tackling the Commodore it 
kind of looks as though we had woke up the wrong 
passenger. We have got to do something, and do 
it almighty quick." 

"I'm agreeable," said he. "I'll tell you what 
I'm going to do. I'm going to get my share of this 
swag over to Jersey in about two jerks of a lamb's 
tail; also, I'm going to live there myself for a while. 
Up in Brattleboro, in my kid days, I used to see 
individuals whom the sheriflF was very anxious to 
interview, scoot through the covered bridge which 
there straddles the Connecticut; and, once on the 
New Hampshire side, snap their fingers at the 
Vermont sheriff. I have been feeling the need 
of a change of air for some time back, and think 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 235 
that the dimate of Jersey would suit me to 

"Just the thing/' I remarked, jumping up. 
**Once across the ferry we will be out of York State's 
jurisdiction. Vanderbilt's processes and writs 
couldn't touch us there. I think we'd better be get- 
ting over there at once." 

"Not until we have packed up these souvenirs 
of the Commodore," said Jimmy. "It was very 
kind of him to send us so many birthday cards"; 
and he began to get the bundles of greenbacks 
together. 

"And there are the account books of the Erie 
Railroad and the other records, including the trans- 
fer books," put in Jay. "Never would do in the 
world to leave those things behind for Vander- 
bilt's lawyers to get hold of. The Erie Railroad 
is packed within the books and papers right in 
this office. If the Commodore got them, inside of 
three months he'd have the road reorganized. Be- 
sides, we can't tell how long our stay may be over 
there. The road will have to be operated while we 
are there." Jay was always a thoughtful sort of 
chap. He could look a long ways ahead. 

"Guess you're right," said Jimmy. "And the 
Commodore's idea of reorganization for the road, 
would reorganize us out of it into the nearest mud- 
gutter." 

"Or into the Ludlow Street Jail," said I. "It's 



236 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

my feeling in the matter that we ought to be moving 
right away/' So we set to work. We got together 
all the papers, books, and other valuables which 
we could easily move, and carried them into a dray, 
for carting over to the Jersey City ferry. 

The policeman on the West Street beat, between 
Chambers and Cortlandt, saw us rushing out of the 
Erie office with our pockets and arms jammed 
with bundles of greenbacks, with bags, packages — 
moveables of all kinds. He hurried over. He 
called to us to halt. 

"What's all this muss about .^" said he. On 
account of the mist, he couldn't make out very well 
who we were, and so was very stern in his manner. 
"Hold your horses a minute. I guess I'll take 
a hand in this." 

But we called out to him that it was all right; 
that we were the officers and Executive Committee 
of the Erie Railroad, and had been compelled to 
make a hasty move to other headquarters. As 
he was closer now he saw who we were. He apolo- 
gized for his mistake. He said he was sorry, but 
through the fog, as he saw us hurrying out, he 
thought we might be thieves. 

"Guess again," said Jimmy; "you were wrong 
that time. We're not thieves. Why, bless your 
stars, we're the owners. Only, a certain individ- 
ual in Wall Street with whom we had a little mis- 
understanding yesterday, has kind of struck up the jig 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 237 

before we could tune our fiddles. We're moving over 
to Jersey for a temporary change of scene/' The 
officer let us go. A five-dollar greenback seems big to 
a policeman, and w^as a small amount to us just then. 

We held the ferry-boat v^hilst we were getting the 
stuff on board. We saw that it was going to be too 
slow to carry all the money by hand, so we got a 
carriage. We bundled over four million dollars 
into the coach. 

By and by we had the stuff on board. Gould 
said: "There! We'll have our men put this stuff 
over in the Erie Depot for us; then we can go over 
to-night or to-morrow ourselves. We can get our 
home affairs straightened out by that time, and be 
ready for a sojourn in foreign parts." 

But I spoke up at once. I said that as for them 
they could remain on York State soil as long as 
they wished. But I wasn't going to shilly-shally 
there another minute. I was going to leave the 
State by the same ferry-boat that took the stuff. 
Because Vanderbilt wanted to get hold of me the 
worst way, and would have liked nothing better 
than to hear the gate clang that should coop me 
up in the Ludlow Street Jail. I wasn't going to 
take any chances. 

" But, man alive," said Jimmy, " aren't you going 
to say good-bye to your home and native land ? 
And pack up some of your personal belongings — 
a clean shirt at least ?" 



238 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

"Fm not going to say good-bye to anybody/* 
I replied. "I'm going to leave on this here boat; 
you fellows can be as foolhardy as you wish. I'll 
notify my home when I get onto another soil." 
So I went onto the boat and gave orders to the cap- 
tain to push off. Even then I didn't feel safe until 
the gates had been shut, the engine started, and a 
fine strip of water spread between me and Vander- 
bilt's process-servers. In fact, I couldn't be alto- 
gether sure even then, because the jurisdiction cf 
the York State courts reaches to the middle of the 
North River; I didn't know but what he might have 
some of his sheriffs concealed on the ferry-boat, to 
nab me before the boat got into Jersey waters. So 
I didn't move around much. I didn't want to 
attract attention. This was ten o'clock in the 
morning. At that time of day there isn't much 
traffic on the river in the Jersey direction. There 
were only a few on board. I didn't have much 
trouble keeping out of sight. When the boat 
reached the middle of the river, I got my spirits 
up; and when at last she bumped into the slip at 
Jersey City, and I was on foreign soil, I felt more 
like my old self. Vanderbilt now could get me only 
through extradition papers from the Jersey officials. 
And when it came to that, I thought I could have 
something to say. 

We had arranged that Taylor's Hotel, which is 
a stone's throw from the ferry terminal in Jersey 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 239 

City, should be our headquarters. So I had our 
goods taken over there, and went there myself. That 
afternoon was a busy one. In moving from New 
York City we had moved also the Erie Railroad 
head office. The trains were running as usual. 
We had to establish some kind of headquarters in 
Taylor's Hotel. I got from the landlord the use of 
several rooms which connected with each other, 
and told him that I expected some more of my 
party over at any time. 

All day long I looked for Fisk and Gould. But 
they didn't come. I began to think they had 
decided to stay over in New York for the night. 
But shortly after dark, in they came. And they 
were a bedraggled pair of men. 

"What in the world!" said I. "You didn't 
have to swim over, did you .f*" 

"Pretty near," said Jimmy; "in fact, it looked 
for a spell as though we weren't going to get here at 
all. It's a beast of a day. We came over in a row- 
boat." 

"A rowboat.?" said I. "How's that.?" And I 
looked at Jay. He pointed me to Fisk. 

"You tell him," said he. 

"Why, nothing special," said Jimmy. "Only 
we were taking a bite together at Delmonico's, after 
a hard day's work, when a message came that the 
sheriff was after us. We decided to scamper. We 
didn't dare trust the ferries. Because after the 



240 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

news of your departure and of the moving of the 

books and the headquarters of the Erie Railroad 

got out, Vanderbilt was so thundering mad we 

thought he might have watchers now at every ferry 

terminal. So we went down to your People's Line 

dock. The St. John was in the slip. We told 

her captain who we were, used your name, and said 

we wanted him to help us over to the Jersey shore. 

He let down one of the life-boats, and sent two of 

his men to row us over. I said: *Row up stream, 

so as to keep out of the track of the ferries.' We 

got along all right until we got to the middle of the 

river; when I'll be blasted if the fog wasn't so thick 

and with the night coming on, we got lost! We 

couldn't do anything but row around in a circle. 

We came deuced near being run down two or three 

times, but managed to dodge. By and by one of the 

Pavonia ferry-boats came along. She looked as 

though she was going to run us down, sure-pop. 

We called out. We made them hear just in time to 

veer their boat off. Then we got hold of her guards 

and hung on. We came mighty near being swamped 

from the swash of the paddle-wheels. It was as 

slippery a job as a man ever had. But we managed 

it. And here we are, a little the worse for wear, 
« 

but hale and whole. At least, I am. Jay over there 
looks as though he'd cave in. Cheer up, my hearty! 
Nothing is lost save honour." 

"That's just what I'm thinking of," said 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 241 

Jay. "What will this do to our reputation at 
home ? '* 

But Jimmy laughed at him. "We've got the 
coin right here with us. That's all we care about, 
isn't it, Uncle .?" and he looked towards me. "So we 
have the chink, we'll bear the stink." 



XXV 

IT WAS a great inconvenience to me to have 
to move so suddenly into another state, and 
my feelings towards Vanderbilt in it all 
were not the most friendly. I missed my home a 
good deal. I was at this time nigh onto seventy 
years old. A man of those years can't pack up and 
move so suddenly as he had made me do, without 
being put to a lot of hardship. And I was accord- 
ingly in hopes that Vanderbilt wouldn't be able to 
live through the pounding that we were giving him. 
Because if he should bust up, we could go back to 
New York at once. But if he should manage to 
keep his head above water, he could work it so as to 
make us stay in Jersey — nobody knew how long. 
. And for a time the prospects were bright. It 
looked as though Vanderbilt would go under any 
minute. He had staked his fortune on this Erie 
fight; and now, when he had thought he had me 
cornered tight as a bull's knot, I had up and given 
him the slip. And I had saddled onto him a hun- 
dred thousand shares of fresh Erie stock at over 
seventy dollars a share — stock which hadn't cost 
me anything more than the paper and the expense of 

242 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 243 

printing. It was a critical moment for him. His 
friends and followers, whose fortunes depended on 
his, hung round him to watch his actions. They 
wanted to see if he was equal to the strain. Because 
the market was in a panicky condition. Our fight 
had been on so big a scale that it had sucked all 
the rest of the Stock Market into it. It looked as 
though the biggest crash in the history of Wall Street 
was about to come. Because Vanderbilt was likely 
to keel over. And if he went, all the stocks that he 
was interested in would go. A flood of selling orders 
would pour into the market, and an enormous panic 
would follow. So his followers hung on his every 
movement. I believe if he had weakened so much 
as by the quiver of an eyelid, a moan or the twitch- 
ing of a muscle, it would have been immediately 
whispered abroad that the Commodore was giving 
way, and then the landslide would have come. 

But, unfortunately, he didn't weaken. He had 
paid over seven million dollars for the stock we had 
saddled onto him, without a murmur. Further, 
not only had my manoeuvre hurt his reputation for 
success, but it had withdrawn from Wall Street seven 
million dollars in cash. This withdrawal tightened 
the money market. Money rates went up, stocks 
went down. Larger margins were demanded of the 
Commodore for the carrying of his investments, at the 
very moment when it was hardest for him to get ready 
cash. But he managed it. 



2'44 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

Where in the world Vanderbilt got the money to 
support the market at this time of times in his Hfe, I 
never found out. Where in the world, also, he got 
all that strength of nerve to stand up under the 
strain, not showing so much as one sign of weakening, 
is more than I can see through. Why, I heard after- 
wards that, even whilst he was being pounded the 
hardest, he would drive his span of horses along the 
Avenue to the Park, calm as anything; frequent the 
theatre, dances and such like vanities, or spend a 
whole evening playing whist with his friends. As 
for me, I never indulge in worldly amusements, 
which the Discipline forbids, or so much as touch 
cards — those Devil's playthings. How it was that 
he dared do those things, and at the very time, too, 
when it looked as though he might go under, the 
time of all times when he ought to have been mourn- 
ful and fasting and propitiating the Wrath, is past 
understanding. 

But he did. And he weathered the storm. He 
even kept up a show of spirits, as though nothing had 
happened. Just when things were at their most 
critical', one of his brokers went to him and asked: 

"Mr. Vanderbilt, will you sell some Erie stock 
now : 

He answered in a thundering tone: "Sell.? You 
fool, no! Take every share offered.'' 

It was too bad that we weren't able to break down 
the Commodore's iron nerve; because it meant that 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 245 

he was left in a position to hit back and do us a power 
of harm. For Vanderbilt over in York State was 
as cross as a bull with a sore head, when he saw that 
we were out of his reach. I fancied I could see him, a 
big lion pacing up and down the shore line, roaring 
over at us and getting madder all the time. The 
thought of it hurt my sleep. To be sure, he couldn't 
get at us; but it's a fearsome sound to have a dog 
bark at you through a fence, even when you know 
he can't get out. Thinking of him in the night 
would give me goose pimples; I'd get the creeps all 
over, like when you take a dead man by the toe. 

We settled down for a long stay at Taylor's Hotel. 
"We might as well make ourselves comfortable," said 
I; "because we'll probably be here for quite a spell." 

"Of course we'll be comfortable," said Jimmy. 
"I never did just take to this town as a permanent 
residence. For one thing, I don't think her girls 
can hold a candle to some of the Madame Light- 
skirts over in New York. I guess also the theatres 
are sort of third-class over here. But what's the 
difference .? We'll be so busy we couldn't gad 
about even if we wanted to." 

So we began to make ourselves at home. We 
got the landlord to let us have Room No. 3 — it 
was the Ladies' Parlour — for our offices. 

"I kind of like the name," said Jimmy. "It 
always did seem to me that a 'Ladies' Parlour' was 
just the kind of a room for a business office." 



246 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

We had the rooms leading off from that for our 
sleeping quarters. Our dinner at night was served 
in a private dining room. Jimmy laid in a store of 
wine and told the landlord to put himself out on his 
bill of fare. We got a line of messengers arranged 
between our hotel and the Erie Terminal at the 
Long Dock. Soon we had an office for the Erie Rail- 
road set up in Taylor's Hotel that, for the time being 
at least, was as good as the one in West Street. 

The Jersey City people were mightily pleased to 
have us with them. They felt that our presence there 
was an honour to the city, seeing that we were the 
head and front of the Erie Railroad. For now 
they had not only the main depot of the road 
within their city limits, but the business head- 
quarters as well and the presence of its Executive 
Committee. We encouraged this feeling in them. 
It's a good thing to have the people who are round 
about you favourable to you. And in the present 
case I had reason, very soon after, to be thankful 
for it. Because this Erie war (and it was a real war, 
too, as will be seen, even though it has never got 
into the histories) soon got to the point of open 
violence. 

We came over to Taylor's Hotel on a Wednesday, 
in the month of March (just two years after the close 
of the Civil War). Things ran along more or less 
smooth for a day or two. But I feared that every- 
thing was not going to be right for long. Because 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 247 

the Friday following fell on the thirteenth of the 
month. That's always bad. I was afraid some- 
thing would happen on that identical date. But it 
didn't. The next day also passed off calm. Sun- 
day I went to church in the morning, because I felt 
as never before the need of comforting words. 
Besides, I wanted to set an example to the rest, in 
the matter of attendance on the stated preaching of 
the gospel. Because (and I grieve to state it) I 
was in the midst of an ungodly set. Besides myself, 
I don't know as there was another Christian in the 
party. They were all, for the most part, profane 
men and breakers of the Sabbath. They knew 
that I was a professor of religion; so now I wanted 
them to see that I didn't leave my piety behind when 
I was away from home. 

The Sunday kind of made me feel more at ease — 
seemed to take away some of the fear that had 
come over me when Friday fell on the thirteenth. 
So when the next morning, Monday, dawned, I 
was more or less calm. I was seated with my feet 
in a chair in our Hotel Taylor headquarters, think- 
ing how nicely we were getting along in spite of the 
sudden change from home life to life in a strange 
state. When suddenly news came that a band of 
toughs had come over from New York City. They 
were collecting on the Long Dock and around the 
Erie Depot; and, as the day wore on, their numbers 
increased. 



248 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

I at once gave out my explanation of it. I said 
that Vanderbilt was trying to kidnap me. He 
couldn't get me in his clutches by legal means with- 
out extradition papers from the Jersey authorities. 
And we were so in favour with the Jersey people 
by this time — since they began to hope we would 
make Jersey City the permanent headquarters here- 
after of the Erie Railroad — that Vanderbilt in his 
rage was determined to get me by fair means or 
foul; so he had collected a lot of hoodlums from the 
Washington Market district, by oflFering a reward 
of fifty thousand dollars to any one who would bring 
me over to Nev/ York City and into his hands alive. 
Because, as soon as he had me on York State soil, 
he could serve a summons on me for violating 
the injunction of his judge, Barnard. He'd clap me 
behind the bars in the Ludlow Street Jail, and then 
have me so at his mercy that in all likelihood he'd 
squeeze out of me the fifty thousand he had paid for 
my capture, and perhaps a whole lot more. 

Jimmy tried to "pooh-pooh" me out of my scare. 
He said Vanderbilt wouldn't go about a thing in so 
clumsy a fashion as that. But it was all right for 
Jimmy to be at ease. He wasn't the one the Commo- 
dore wanted. I was the big fish he was angling for. 
If he could strike me down, me, the head of the 
enemy's forces, he could round up the rest of them 
easy. So it stood me in hand to protect myself. 
A general ought never to expose his own person. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 249 

He ought to keep in the background, out of the 
reach of danger. So much depends upon him. 
He's got to look out for himself, not only for per- 
sonal reasons — and I had personal reasons, good- 
ness knows; for if those Washington Market toughs 
had once got me in their clutches, they'd have given 
me a shirtful of sore bones — but, also, for the 
good of the cause that he stands for. So I sounded 
the alarm good and strong. 

I soon got Gould to see the thing as I did. When 
the news came that the tough characters were gather- 
ing in the neighbourhood of our hotel. Jay got very 
thoughtful. He began to snatch off the corners of 
a newspaper and tear them into bits. I had come 
to know Jay by this time. I knew that when Jay 
gets to snipping off corners of newspapers, it is a sign 
he is mighty uneasy over something. By and by he 
out with it. 

**It's this way, Jim," he said, turning to Fisk. 
"It isn't that our persons are in danger. But I'm 
thinking of the money. Here we've got over seven 
million dollars, a lot of it in greenbacks. All of it 
belonged to the Commodore, and we've taken it 
away from him. What more natural than that he 
should try to get it back, by hook or by crook ? 
At a time like this, when things are in all kinds of 
confusion, possession is nine points of the law. The 
Law Courts are all tangled up. Vanderbilt has 
on his side the Supreme Court in the New York 



250 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

City District, we have on our side the Supreme 
Court in the Binghamton District. The judges 
are issuing so many injunctions back and forth that, 
so far as the law stands, there isn't a lawyer at the 
New York bar can unravel the snarl. At such a 
time the fellow who has the cash right in his own 
fist is a sight better off than the fellow who techni- 
cally has the law on his side, but without the cash. 
With the money in our fist, we have nine-tenths of 
the Law; and Vanderbilt is welcome to the other 
tenth," Jay added with a grin. It was seen by 
Jimmy also, after we had held our council of war, 
that my suspicions as to Vanderbilt's hand in this 
move were not so crazy after all. The thought of 
putting on a uniform and of having real soldiers 
to command, sort of appealed to Fisk, anyhow. 
We decided to take immediate steps of defence. 

I called Chief of PoHce Fowler, and he got fifteen 
picked men from the Jersey City police force to guard 
the approaches to Taylor's Hotel — "Fort Taylor," 
as Jimmy now called it. Then we summoned 
Inspector Masterson, who was General Superin- 
tendent of Pohce for the Erie Railroad. He organ- 
ized a force of the Erie Railroad employees to patrol 
the Long Dock and the streets around our citadel. 
Three twelve-pounders were mounted on the dock 
dividing the ferry from the Cunard wharves, with 
the Hudson County Artillery in reserve. 

Inasmuch as it promised now to be a state of war, 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 251 

we detailed ourselves, each to have charge of some 
particular part of the defense. Masterson was 
under my charge, because I could supervise him 
and his men without going out from the "Fort"; and 
I thought it best at this particular crisis not to 
expose myself unnecessarily. We had a small navy 
hastily gathered. It consisted of four life-boats, 
manned by a dozen men each. These we armed 
with Springfield rifles. Jimmy took charge of the 
navy. 

"Til take care of that end,'' he said, as soon as a 
fleet of armed boats had been suggested. "I wish 
rd thought to. bring over one of my uniforms." 

Jimmy liked to be in command of boats, soldiers 
and such like, where he could give orders with a 
loud voice and wear a sword. (He used to like noth- 
ing better than to go up the Sound on one of his 
steamboats, walk up and down the decks covered 
with gold lace, and then, when he had got the boat 
some distance up the Sound and the passengers were 
all to sleep and couldn't look at him any longer, he 
would have another boat come and take him off 
and back to the city.) So now, as soon as a real 
navy was under way, Jimmy said that he'd take 
charge of it. That was the place of greatest 
danger, he said, and he wanted to be on the firing 
line. So he became the "Admiral." It was a 
name he liked, anyhow. Fisk was a vainglorious 
man. Still he wasn't a timid person — wasn't 



252 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

afraid of anything, for that matter. He could face 
a street full of sheriffs without scaring. "There's 
no gallows built high enough to hang Jim Fisk," he 
used to say. 

Besides the guards around Fort Taylor, we sent 
over a dozen detectives to watch the ferry terminals 
in New York City and also on the Jersey side. 
These were scouts, so to speak, to let us know of the 
advance of the enemy, before they got within dan- 
gersome distance. We set five other detectives to 
watch the hoodlum neighbourhoods in New York City, 
and find out if there was any recruiting going on. 
We had a dozen couriers to run back and forth 
from "Fort Taylor" to the Erie Railroad to carry 
our messages. Because the business of the Road had 
to be cared for, even during the state of war in which 
we then were. Gould w^as in charge of this, the 
Business Department. For freight agents, divi- 
sion superintendents and such-like were reporting 
to us now at Taylor's Hotel, instead of at the offices 
in West Street. Jay was always a good hand at busi- 
ness details. With Fisk as Admiral of the navy, and 
Jay in charge of running the railroad, that left me 
free to superintend the land forces for our defence. 
As night drew on, I had Chief Fowler and Mr. 
Gaffney, president of the Jersey City Police Com- 
missioners, over at "Fort Taylor" to a council of 
war. It was seen that the night was the time of 
greatest danger. Should the enemy charge down 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 253 

on us in the middle of the night, they might over- 
power any ordinary poHce guards and whisk us and 
our cash over to the other side of the river before the 
Jersey City people knew it. So, as darkness settled 
down, we agreed upon a set of signals whereby the 
whole city could be alarmed if the attack should come 
— fire signals if the attack came by night, and an 
alarm with guns if the attack came by day. Fur- 
ther, a force of a hundred and twenty-five citizens 
of Jersey City came and surrounded the "fort," 
and they agreed that in case of need they would 
summon the entire city to our rescue. 

A pair of double doors, with a transom above, 
led from the business office into our sleeping rooms. 
These doors didn't offer as much protection as I 
should have liked. They were not built for an 
assault. A force of prize-fighting toughs might break 
them down, or perhaps get in at me by means of 
the transom, whilst I was asleep. So we had a force 
of guards stationed in the big outer room by night. 

Winds blow hard on high hills. For once in 
my life I had trouble in going to sleep. Commonly, 
I have been a good sleeper. Even in the most excit- 
ing times of my life I haven't lost a wink of sleep 
over business matters. But now it was different. 
Over there in Jersey City everything was so strange. 
It wasn't like what I had been used to at home. And 
I told some of the others of my uneasiness. 

"Now, see here. Uncle," said Jimmy, finally, 



254 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

"don't you get to snivelling. You'll be taken care 
of all right. My navy is on guard. If Vanderbilt 
tries to come over, we'll swab the deck with him. 
I have mounted some artillery on the docks. The 
military forces of the city are aroused. You and the 
money will be looked after." 

"Yes," said I; "I believe you care more about 
guarding the money than you do about guarding me. 
I almost believe you would like to have me caught 
and taken over there into Vanderbilt's clutches." 

"Bosh and tommyrot!" said he; "don't you know 
we are just as anxious to keep you away from the 
Commodore as you are yourself.^ A pretty broth 
you would spice up for the rest of us, if you and he 
got your noddles together." 

"Well, then," said I, "if you are so set on taking 
care of me, why don't you do it, and increase the 
guards ^ Why, a thousand of those hoodlums from 
Cherry Hill might come over here in the middle of 
the night in rowboats — no one knows. They'd 
be enough to carry off this whole hotel, lock, stock 
and barrel, and us inside of it!" 

"As to crossing that North River in rowboats 
at night," said Jimmy, "rest your boots that if any 
of them tried it, they'd be out of commission by 
the time they got to this side. It's the gol damnedest 
river to get lost in that I ever saw in all my born 
days. While as to guards — just step out here a 
minute." He took me out through the double doors 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 255 

into the big outer room; there he showed me the 
watchmen. They were sleeping on beds made of 
blankets spread on the floor. As we came in they 
arose and saluted us — real military style. 

"Mr. Drew," said Jimmy, "these are the men 
who are protecting you, and they look well able to 
do it, don't they ? " 

I had to say something. I answered that they did 
look to be strong men, loyal and true, if the time 
came to fight. And I had no doubt they would be 
willing to give up their lives, if need be, at the call 
of duty. The men saluted once more, and we went 
back into our own rooms. 

Even then I didn't get a good night's rest. The 
trouble was, I couldn't be sure of the kind of treat- 
ment I would get at the hands of those toughs, if 
they once got me into their clutches. In fact, I 
thought I'd rather have fallen into Vanderbilt's own 
hands than into theirs. Because they were a vio- 
lent set of men. I tossed on my bed considerable. 
But I had some company in my misery, because 
Gould was even worse off. Jay wasn't anywheres 
near so good a sleeper as I. Even amidst ordinary 
business worries. Jay used to have nights when he'd 
lie awake for hours. Why, he even had a cup of 
hot milk by his bed, for him to drink in the night 
when he couldn't get to sleep any other way. 

The night wore away without any attack. The 
next day, the news of our preparedness got over to 



256 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

New York. Then we knew we were less likely to 
be disturbed. Because in war, when your enemy 
knows you are ready for him, he isn't anywheres near 
so likely to come at you. After a few days the threat 
of violence papsed away. But we still kept up our 
guard, particularly at night. 



XXVI 

WE NOW got a bill introduced in the Jersey 
Legislature which was then in session, 
incorporating the Erie Railroad under 
a New Jersey charter, with headquarters in Jersey 
City. The bill proposed to give to the road all of 
the rights which it held as a York State corporation. 
Vanderbilt, as soon as he heard that such a bill 
had been introduced, got a lobby to work at Trenton 
and fought the bill tooth and nail. So long as we 
were in Jersey as a visitor, he knew he would have 
a handle on us. The Erie charter was a York 
State thing, and didn't look to any moving of the 
headquarters permanently out of the State. So if 
Vanderbilt could defeat us in getting a home in 
Jersey, he would be able to get us back onto York 
State soil soon or late. 

But we also set a lobby to work. And here we 
had two or three things in our favour. We were 
nearer Trenton than he was. In the next place, 
we had a lot of ready cash, whereas he was scant 
of cash by precise!;^ the amount which had been 
put into our Dockets. And in the third place, it 
was a welcome thing to Jerseyites, this prospect of 

257 



258 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

moving the headquarters of the railroad to their 
soil. 

We worked this last lever all we could. We 
wanted at least the appearance of a settled abode 
in Jersey City, so that the Commodore would give 
up the job of waiting for us to come back, and go 
to something else. We made believe that we liked 
it in Jersey even better than we had over in New 
York. In fact, we even went so far as to get Jay to 
buy a beautiful house in Jersey City, and to give 
out that he would move his family there shortly. 
With these helps we got the bill jammed through 
both houses of the Legislature at Trenton. The 
Governor signed it. This was notice served on 
Vanderbilt that we were in this fight in earnest. He 
was boasting that he would keep us over there until 
we fried in our own fat — " till we stewed in our 
own juice" was the way he put it. So now we 
showed him we could stay in Jersey just as long as 
was necessary. 

At Taylor's Hotel, Jimmy was all the time getting 
off jokes. At the dinner table at night, he was full 
of mirth. He started a kind of a camp fire to take 
up our time after dinner was through. "We'll 
hoist the flag of No-surrender at this citadel," he 
used to say, and he would get some of the people 
about him of an evening to sing war songs. He was 
getting to be high-cockalorum in one of the militia 
regiments over in New York City, and liked to keep 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 259 

up the military idea. I used to laugh at his jokes, 
even when I didn't see much fun in them, he had 
such a hearty way of getting them off. He would 
joke me by saying that the Commodore was of more 
use in the world than I was. "Vander built and 
Dan drew,'' was the way he used to put it. Still 
I was glad, first along, to have him and Gould with 
me at Taylor's Hotel. For I felt the need of partners 
in the fight I had on my hands. It's a fine thing 
when friends do each other a good turn. You 
scratch my back and I'll scratch yours, as we used 
to say in drover days — help me and I'll help you. 

But after a few days at Fort Taylor, our relation- 
ships became a little strained. And this got more 
so as our stay lengthened. Because I had brought 
over with me a big sum of money — the proceeds 
from the sale of stock to Vanderbilt — and Jimmy 
and Jay wanted some of it. They kept pestering 
me to divide up with them. Until that sum of 
money came in among us, I can truthfully say that 
we had been as friendly together as anything. Like 
dogs which play together free and happy, until 
there's a bone thrown among them. I was almost 
sorry I had the money, they pestered me so for it. 
From the time they got their eyes on those green- 
backs, we agreed like three cats in a gutter. I was 
anxious to have the war come to an end, and get 
away from them. 

We tried in several ways to hit back at the Commo- 



26o THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

dore and lay him out. For no one must think that 
in this war we were only on the defensive, and that 
Vanderbilt was doing all the attacking. We soon 
came to see that the best way to fight fire is by start- 
ing a back fire. We had Vanderbilt already on the 
rack, because of the money he had lost to us, and 
because of the stringency caused by the withdrawal 
of that money to the Jersey soil. Now we 
started in to push the fight still closer home to him, 
by attacking his property, the New York Central. 
We announced that the Erie was going to cut by 
one-third both its passenger and freight rates from 
New York to Buffalo. We actually made a start 
by cutting the passenger rate so low — from $'] to 
^5 — that the New York Central couldn't possibly 
meet it. (In fact, the Erie Railroad couldn't afford 
the rate either; but then we as its Executive Com- 
mittee were in a tight fix and thought it no more 
than right that the Erie should come to our rescue.) 
We also let it be noised abroad that we planned to 
start a fifty-cent-fare line of boats from New York 
to Albany, which would hurt Vanderbilt's Hudson 
River Railroad. 

We got in an attack on him in still a third way. 
We got our agents to introduce in the Legislature 
at Albany, which was then also in session, a bill 
legalizing the ^10,000,000 issue of stock that our 
printing press had turned out. Some scoffers called 
it "A Bill to Legalize Counterfeit Money." But 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 261 

I have made it a rule all through my Hfe never to 
mind what scoffers say. Vanderbilt fought the bill 
hard. And now he was in a better position than 
we. Because though we had been nearer to Trenton, 
he was now nearer to Albany. More than that, 
he could go and come when he wanted to; while 
we were hindered by our inability to cross even onto 
York State soil. It began to look as though our 
bill there would be defeated. 

Finally, after the bill had been reported out of 
the Committee, we found we lacked one vote of 
the number necessary to pass it. We saw some- 
thing desperate would have to be done. I called 
a council of war. I showed how that one of us 
would have to run the risk and go up to Albany. 
When they proposed me, I said I couldn't do it 
nohow. I was the big toad in this puddle. Vander- 
bilt would pounce onto me before I got half-way up 
to Albany, and fix me up so quick that my legislative 
usefulness would be over before it had begun. Fisk 
would have been a good one, only he was such a 
dashy fellow. As soon as he got there just like as 
not he would start in to cut a splurge and drive 
around in four-in-hands, with half the chorus girls 
in Albany. He wasn't fitted to do a work softly, 
as this had to be done. Gould was the man. So 
I told him that he just had to go and represent me 
there in the fight at Albany. 

"All right," said he finally. "We'll send out 



262 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

word to the press that I have started off to Ohio, 
to push the completion of the eighty miles of broad- 
gauge track from Akron to Toledo, to give us that 
connection with Chicago we have been talking about 
so long. Also draw off a half-million dollars from 
the Erie treasury — (charge it up to sundries) — 
as my ammunition.'* So we told the newspaper 
reporters that Gould was off on the Ohio trip. We 
gave him a trunk full of greenbacks, and started 
him off to Albany sort of quiet-like. 

We hadn't worked it any too softly. The moment 
he got to Albany and had set up his headquarters 
at the Delevan House, Vanderbilt got wind of it 
and had his New York judge summon him to New 
York City right off to answer a writ. Gould went 
back to New York in response to the writ. He then 
got the case put off. The judge said, " Mr. Gould, 
ril postpone the trial. Further, I'll put you under 
the personal charge of an officer who will see that 
you don't escape us." So the judge detailed an 
officer to be with Gould every minute. He said to 
him, "See to it, officer, that he doesn't get out of 
your sight." Gould went back to Albany. The 
officer went along as a kind of valet. At the Dele- 
van House Gould very soon had the senators and 
assemblymen coming to see him by ones and twos 
and threes. Now and then he went up in person 
to the Capitol on the hill. 

He carried on my business there so successfully 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 263 

that Vanderbilt began to scare and got word sent to 
the officer who was in charge of Gould. So the 
officer hinted that Gould's presence was very much 
desired back in New York. Gould answered that 
he was sick and couldn't possibly stand a railway 
journey to New York at this time — would have to 
wait for a few days. 

"Now see here/' said the officer; "you don't 
come any such game as that on me. You were 
well enough just now to go up to the Capitol in a 
snowstorm. If you can do that, and if you can 
spend the day and half the night in your secret con- 
ferences with committeemen from the Legislature, 
I guess you're strong enough to make the trip to 
New York with me, when the Court orders it." 

Gould said he couldn't think of it — it would 
be too great a strain on his strength — it was inhuman 
for any law court to ask him to do it. So the officer 
had to come back to New York alone and report 
to the court that his prisoner was virtually a runaway, 
for he had refused to obey the Court's command. 
This gave Gould a few days longer to be at liberty, 
which he employed in fixing up some more legis- 
lators. Finally he got enough to secure the bill's 
passing. 

But it had been costly work. Those fellows at 
Albany were a slippery lot. To keep one of them, 
even after you'd got him, was like holding a wet 
eel by the tail, they were that untrustworthy. When 



264 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

you have secured a Senator to vote your way, at a 
price of $15,000 and then have him flop to the other 
side for fco,ooo — well, it shows the kind of people 
I had to deal with in these transactions. The 
New York Independent called this Legislature 
of 1868 the "worst assemblage of official thieves 
that ever disgraced the Capitol of the Empire State." 
And there were times in the conduct of these nego- 
tiations when I thought that that editor was right. 
In the committee of investigation which the Senate 
appointed afterwards to look into the charges, they 
tried to cover up themselves by attacking me. One 
of the senators said that my conduct in these matters 
had been what he called "disgraceful," and he 
expressed his belief that Gould and Fisk "were 
concerned, and probably interested with Drew in 
these corrupt proceedings." I give his exact words, 
because they have found their way into the official 
documents of the State; otherwise I wouldn't have 
noticed them. 

The ups and downs of the Bill as it was on its 
way through the Legislature was the means of all 
kinds of rumours on the Stock Exchange. The 
whole market was unsettled. Vanderbilt didn't 
like that state of aff'airs. The fight was hurting him. 
considerable. His New York Central slumped from 
132 to 109. He had said he would support the 
market if he had to mortgage every dollar of property 
he possessed. But the job was too big. Further- 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 265 

more he was exposed to fresh issues of Erie stock, and 
we threatened 'most every day now to start our 
printing press going once more. His friends were 
getting scary, and more and more were leaving him. 
The Commodore began to see that in trying to oust 
me and my crowd from the Erie management, he 
had roped a heifer that he couldn't hold. So about 
this time I got a note from him looking to a settle- 
ment. Most likely he thought of me as the one 
through whom he could best start the negotiations. 
Because he and I had been friends in former days 
and I had named my son after his. 

I was glad to get the note and to see that the war 
was coming to an end. I didn't like it over in Jersey. 
It wasn't home. I used to take a walk around the 
city two or three times a day; I tried to be at 
ease. But it wouldn't go. Tlfere wasn't any snap 
in me. Each morning I'd start into the day's 
work limply, like a horse that's got corns. I couldn't 
do much else than sit, sometimes for half a day at 
a time, with my feet up in a chair, thinking. Over 
in my big house in New York, and busy every day 
in Wall Street, I had been as happy as pigs in pea- 
straw. I was tired of being away from home. A 
man at my age misses the comforts of family life. 
I wanted to sleep in my own bed, be with my own 
family, sit in my own pew on Sunday, go to the 
Wednesday night class, and such-like. 

It had been hard for the letter to get from Vander- 



266 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

bilt to me, Jimmy and Jay were so all-fired suspicious 
of me. They were afraid I was going to betray 
them and make terms with the Commodore with 
them left out. "I'll stake my back teeth you're 
planning to flop," Jimmy said once. And he issued 
orders to the landlord to tell all the servants that no 
mail matter or bit of paper of any kind was to be 
delivered to me without his seeing it first. He 
wouldn't even let me get a telegram, but he must 
open it before it got into my hands. 

But the Commodore was clever and worked it 
very shrewd. He got a detective to come to Taylor's 
Hotel and put up there as a commercial traveller. 
This detective slipped a note to the head waiter — 
for we ate in a private dining room, as a precaution 
against process-servers — and told him to hand it 
to me. The head waiter said the orders from the 
proprietor were so strict that he was like to lose 
his job if he took any note to me. 

"That's all right," said the detective; "Vanderbilt 
will give you another job when you lose this one." 
So the note was handed to the waiter and he slipped 
it to me on the sly. 

The note was short. It read something like this. 

"Drew: — 

^^Tm sick of the whole damned business. 
Come and see me. Vanderbilt." 

I tried to make away with the paper at once. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 267 

But I wasn't quick enough. The rest had spied 
it, and now were furious at the head waiter. They 
went to the proprietor and stormed around so that 
the poor fellow lost his job — as he said he would. 
But Vanderbilt made it right by taking him into 
his employ. 

I decided to meet the Commodore's offer of peace. 
Not that I felt any great love towards him. He had 
been calling me all kinds of names during my stay 
in Jersey — said I was no better than a batter 
pudding; that I would turn tail on my partners 
any time he wanted me to; that I had no backbone 
and such-like. And whilst I was starting rumours 
about him through Wall Street, in return for the 
mean things he was doing to me, he up and said to 
friends, ''This Erie war has taught me that it never 
pays to kick a skunk." It hurt me considerable 
when these remarks of his came to my ears. I had 
half a mind to resent them. But I now concluded 
to forgive him. He didn't know me, that is all; 
he said those hard things about me ignorantly. I 
decided I'd go over and see him. But I would do 
it on a Sunday. Because on that day process-servers 
can't ply their trade. During those twenty-four 
hours, those who are hounded by the law have a 
day of freedom — neither the sheriff nor his depu- 
ties can touch you. 

So when Sunday came I set out from the hotel, 
supposedly for an afternoon's walk. When I was 



268 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

out of sight I changed my course, and shpped over 
to New York. I found Vanderbilt at his house on 
what used to be the Potter's Field, but was now 
called Washington Square. It was a fine big house, 
red brick with white trimmings. I was very cordial 
in my greetings to him. I thought it best to show 
a friendly spirit and act as though nothing had 
come between us. 

**How do, Commodore," said I, and I grasped 
him by the hand. "The sight of you is good for 
sore eyes." 

"Come in," said he. He was short as pie crust. 
I saw that those convertible bonds were sticking in 
his gizzard. But I made up my mind that I'd keep 
sweet, anyhow, let him be miffed as much as he 
pleased. 

"You've got a fine house here. Commodore," 
I remarked, sitting down in an easy-chair and cross- 
ing my legs in a friendly sort of a way. "It beats 
all creation how this city is a-growing. Why, back 
in my * Bull's Head' days, this here place where 
you've got your fine house used to be called Shin- 
bone Alley — the graves around here were as thick 
as bugs on a pumpkin vine. Those were great old 
days, anyhow. I often think of the times when 
you and I were in the steamboat business together." 

But Vanderbilt puckered up tighter than choke- 
cherries. "Now see here," said he; "let's don't 
get gushy. Of course I'd like to be affectionate 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 269 

and chat with you about old times. No one knows 
how my bowels yearn after you, Drew. But as I 
understand it, this is a business interview. So, if 
you'll wipe that tobacco juice off your chin and 
draw up here to the table, we'll talk." 1 wiped my 
chin and drew up close to the table. We talked 
the thing over. 

We didn't come to any settlement at that time. 
When a great war has been waging, the first time 
the two sides meet for a conference, about all they 
can do is to shake hands and become friends once 
jnore. That is enough for one interview. The 
details of the treaty of peace are settled in a second 
conference. So now with us. We talked the thing 
over in a general way and decided that it was better 
to be at peace with each other than to be fighting. 
Anyhow, I was then in no frame of mind to go into 
the matter in cool and careful fashion. I was on 
pins and needles. I was all the time looking at 
the clock to see if I could be sure of getting back on 
Jersey soil before twelve o'clock midnight. Because 
my freedom would expire at that time. If I allowed 
myself to be caught napping, Vanderbilt might have 
a process-server in hiding, and nab me. So we 
appointed a time for another conference. I bid 
the Commodore good night, hastened to the ferry, 
and got back onto Jersey soil before the Sabbath 
came to an end. 

I was glad that a treaty of peace was in sight. 



270 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

It had been almost a month now since our move 
to Jersey, and I had got heartily sick of it. Besides, 
there was another side to the thing. During the 
legislative contest which we were waging in Albany, 
each turn in the tide of fortune up there had been 
followed by hundreds of speckilators in Wall Street, 
to take advantage of the turns in Erie stock which 
the rumours from Albany caused. One day it 
would be noised abroad that Vanderbilt was sure 
to win; and Erie would go up. Then a day or two 
after it would be reported: ''Uncle Dan'l and his 
crowd have got control of the Senate; they are 
going to pass their bill, and rivet their hold on the 
Erie Railroad forever." Whereupon Erie shares 
would go down. Thus outsiders were getting just 
as much speckilative advantage in Wall Street as 
we were, because their guesses as to the outcome 
at Albany were as good as ours. We insiders didn't 
have any better chance than they. 

I began to see that it is poor policy for big men 
in Wall Street to fight each other. When I am fight- 
ing a money king, even my victories are dangersome. 
Take the present situation. I had scooped a fine 
profit out of this Erie deal, and it was for the most 
part in solid cash. But — and here was the trouble 
— it had all come out of one man, Vanderbilt. 
Naturally it had left him very sore. And being so 
powerful, he was able to fight back. As has been 
seen, he did fight back. He had put me and my 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 271 

party to a lot of inconvenience. That always hap- 
pens when you take money from a man on your 
own level. On the other hand, if I had taken these 
profits from outsiders, it would in the aggregate 
have amounted to the same sum. But the losers 
would have been scattered all over the whole country 
and so wouldn't have been able to get together and 
hit back. A thousand dollars of my total profits 
would have come then out of a lumber merchant, 
say in Oshkosh; five hundred dollars from a coal 
dealer in New Haven; eight hundred dollars from 
an undertaker in Poughkeepsie; a thousand dollars 
or two from a doctor in Syracuse; and so on, here 
a little and there a little. Many drops of water 
make the mighty ocean, and many small profits, 
added together, make the big profit. Thus, by 
making my money from people on the outside, an 
insider like myself could make just as much in the 
long run, and not raise up any one enemy powerful 
enough to cause him discomfort. 

So, as the time for the conference with Vanderbilt 
drew nigh, I made plans to be there good and punc- 
tual. I thought it best to go there alone. Gould 
and Fisk would probably want so much for them- 
selves, when it came to a settlement with Vanderbilt, 
that I was afraid, if they were there too, the thing 
wouldn't go off smooth. We had set the conference 
for the home of Ex-Judge Pierrepont. Gould and 
Fisk knew that something was in the wind. So, 



272 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

in order to put their heads in a bag, I made believe 
that I was going to let them be a party to the affair. 

"When the final settlement is made, you must 
be there," said I. 

"You bet your giblets we'll be there," Jimmy 
remarked. "Won't we. Jay?" Jay grinned and 
said he'd try to make it convenient to attend. " Don't 
get the kink in your head," Jimmy added, "that 
you're going to see the Commodore alone when it 
comes to dividing up the swag." 

I saw from this that I was going to have a job on 
my hands to get the thing fixed up without their 
knowing it. So I hit upon a scheme. On the 
night of the conference I made the appointment 
with Fisk and Gould, but I fixed it at the Fifth 
Avenue Hotel in New York. Then when we started 
over I made an excuse and said for them to go on 
up to the Fifth Avenue Hotel ahead and wait for 
me. They agreed, and started off. I then skipped 
over by another way, and went to the house of Judge 
Pierrepont. 

I was glad to find that Vanderbilt had kept the 
appointment. We went into Pierrepont's drawing- 
room, drew up around the table and were soon 
busy with our treaty of peace. 

"Now let's understand one thing first of all," 
said Vanderbilt. "This ten-million batch of Erie 
that I've paid good money for, has got to be taken 
off my hands. So, Drew, set your wits to that end 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 273 

of the thing first. Otherwise, there won't be any 
settlement." I told him I thought it could be done. 
I'd take the money from the Erie treasury and use 
it to pay him for the stock he had bought of me. 

Vanderbilt replied that it was none of his business 
where the money came from, so long as he got it. 
We were getting along in the conference fine as 
anything. When suddenly the front-door bell rang. 
Fisk and Gould walked in. Pierrepont went out 
into the hall to meet them. Gould engaged Pierre- 
pont in conversation. Jimmy edged over towards 
the drawing-room door and suddenly bust in on us. 
He was in high spirits, as usual. He took on as 
though he was mighty glad to see me. 

** Hello, Uncle," said he; "put her there! Can't 
tell how glad I am to find you here. Jay and I 
were afraid we might not be able to get here in time. 
We waited down at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, but in 
some way or other missed you down there. Then 
the man whom we had set to follow you came and 
said that you were up here at Pierrepont's house, 
and spoke as though you wanted us. So we set 
aside everything else and have come. Hope we 
can be of some assistance in drawing up a treaty of 
peace with our honoured adversary here." Vander- 
bilt broke out in a loud roar of laughter. I wasn't 
in any mood to join him. I didn't feel at all like 
laughing. I tried not to show it, but the truth is, 
I was very much put out. They had bust in on me 



274 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

just at a time when the thing was going smooth 
as anything. 

However, I made the best of it. I told them that 
I had been planning to look out for their interests, 
whether they had come or not. I hadn't thought 
it necessary to invite them to this particular confer- 
ence, because often the early stages of a negotiation 
can be handled better by one person acting for all, 
than by them acting for themselves. But that was 
no matter now. If they chose to be present, as far as 
I was concerned, they were welcome. We made places 
for them at the table, and got once more to work. 

"This is where we'd got to," said Vanderbilt. 
"The nine million dollars worth of stock that was 
saddled onto me is to be bought back, and we're 
going to call the thing quits." 

"But where is that nine millions to come from .^" 
asked Jimmy. 

"Why, Drew here says he proposes to take it 
out of the Erie treasury." 

Jimmy gave a long whistle of astonishment. "By 
the Lord Almighty!" said he, "that's a corker. 
Commodore, I'm an ungodly man. Wall Street 
sucks the conscience out of a fellow, anyway; and 
I don't know as I had any large amount of it even 
before I went there. But there are some things that 
even I can't stand for. And this almighty robbery 
of Drew's against the Erie Railroad is one of them." 

"I'm not saying anything, myself, as to the equity 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 275 

of this thing Drew proposes," said Vanderbilt. 
" It's none of my business, anyway. In these matters 
every man must chew his own meat. But, however 
you arrange it, some way has got to be found for 
taking this dirty batch of stock off my hands, or 
by the Lord God, Fll hound you curs from now to 
Kingdom Come." 

I tried to persuade Jay and Jimmy to consent 
to the plan. I showed them how they had made 
some money in their short sales. And though, of 
course, they wouldn't be cleaning up so much on this 
deal as I, still I was older; they had lots of time yet. 
I told them I couldn't stand it much longer at Tay- 
lor's Hotel. Those quarters were so cramped, 
compared to what I'd been used to, I felt about 
as comfortable there as three in a bed. A man at 
my age, I told them, needs to be home and enjoy 
his friends. I pleaded with them until well on 
towards midnight. 

At last Jay spoke up. He had been silent a 
good share of the evening. He never was much 
of a fellow to talk, anyhow. I used to wish I could 
be silent like him, for it's the still hog that eats the 
most. He now had a few words with Jimmy on 
the side. As soon as it was over he spoke up; Jay 
took a masterful tone at that moment, which I had 
never seen him take before. In fact, Gould was a 
different man from that time on, a leader rather 
than a follower. 



276 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

"Mr. Vanderbilt," said he; "we are willing to 
come to some such arrangement. We will allow 
Drew here to keep the profits he has made in this 
deal, and to draw the money out of the Erie treasury. 
But'' — and he spoke now in so positive a tone that 
I had to open my eyes to see if it was really the quiet- 
mannered Gould I had formerly known — "there's 
got to be one condition attached. Dan Drew has 
got to get out of the Erie Railroad for good and all." 

I began to speak up at once. I didn't like the 
idea of letting go my hold on Erie. One of my 
ideas in coming to a settlement was that I might get 
back into Wall Street as a railroad manager and 
so as an insider. I started to explain the thing. 
But they wouldn't let me talk. 

"Now, see here," broke in the Commodore. "I 
suppose I'll have to preside at this meeting. Your 
arrangements as to the Erie Railroad are something 
that don't exactly concern me. I'm not responsible 
for that road. Don't know but what, all in all, 
I am just as glad that I'm not. But we must conduct 
this meeting in parliamentary fashion. All in favour 
of the basis of settlement as just stated, namely, 
that Drew is to be left in possession of the money 
he has made and himself to get out of the road 
from this time forth forevermore, say *Aye.'" And 
then, "All opposed say, *No."' 

The vote was put, and of course I was voted down. 
I knew perfectly well that if it came to counting 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 277 

noses, Yd be out; and I tried to get some other way 
of deciding it. But they carried the day. A treaty 
of peace was drawn up along those Hnes. Judge 
Barnard fined the smaller directors of the Erie 
Company ten dollars each for contempt of court. 
Us bigger fellows he let off scot free. Thus the 
legal snarls and tangles were got rid of. And the 
war came to an end. 

After it was settled, I was more contented than 
I had thought I would be. My profits in ready 
cash were big. In this deal I had certainly brought 
my hogs to a fine market. To be sure I had lost the 
Erie Railroad. That goose was gone that had 
laid for me those big eggs. But with the nine mil- 
lions now sluiced off from her treasury, I thought 
the Erie Road wasn't really a valuable enough 
property to squabble over. Jimmy, I guess, had 
something of the same feeling. 

"Yes," said he, as the conference was coming to 
a close, "the pirates have gone off with the swag, 
and have left us nothing but the confounded hulk." 

"Don't you mind," said Jay; "there may be 
some service left in the old vessel yet." 

"Drew," said the Commodore to me as I started 
to leave, "I dare say you will chuckle a heap, with 
that hen-cackle of yours, over this thing which you'll 
call a victory. Most likely you'll tell all your friends 
how you downed the Commodore. Well, I don't 
know but what you have downed me, after a fashion. 



278 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

But I don't want you to think it was because I didn't 
have money enough. If I wanted to, I think I could 
raise the cash to buy your crowd, body and breeches. 
But I confess that I haven't money enough to buy 
up that printing press of yours. In the present 
state of our country's jurisprudence, there doesn't 
seem to be any hmit to the amount of certificates 
of stock that you fellows can manufacture out of 
white paper. I'm willing to own up. Drew, that 
here's a case where you fooled me. Good night." 

I said, "Good night," and was glad to be out 
into the street a free man once more. 

Anyhow, Vanderbilt had only himself to blame 
for this trouble he had got himself into. He had 
no call to mix up in Erie matters. If he thought 
I was going to submit tamely and let him push me 
aside without fighting back, he had the wrong sow 
by the ears, that's all. The trouble with Vander- 
bilt was, he had an idea that the law is the highest 
power in the land. He now saw his mistake. He 
never stopped to think that law is no such wonder- 
ful thing after all. Law is like a cobweb; it's made 
for flies and the smaller kind of insects, so to speak, 
but lets the big bumblebees break through. I 
showed him in this affair that I was the bumblebee. 
Where technicalities of the law stood in my way, 
I have always been able to brush them aside easy 
as anything. In this Erie war we had judges from 
New York, Binghamton, Albany and Brooklyn, 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 279 

issuing contrary injunctions. It has been called, 
"The darkest scene in the history of American 
jurisprudence." I don't know anything as to that. 
When you're in business you can't split hairs, or 
bother over technicalities. 

But, anyhow, with the settlement that had now 
been reached, Vanderbilt had been taken care of; 
the loss had been saddled on the outside people. 
That is always the safe way; because, as I guess 
I've already wrote, the outsiders are so numerous 
they can't get together and hit back. It must have 
been one of these outsiders who wrote a poem about 
this Erie war. I never thought much of the poetry 
of it. It has always seemed to me no better than a 
! string of foolish jesting. For my part I like hymns 
better: 

Cornelius, the great Cornerer, 
A solemn oath he swore. 
That in his trouser's pocket he 
Would put one railroad more. 
And when he swears he means it, 
The stout old Commodore. 

But brooding o'er the Erie sat — 

In fact, on the same lay, 

A bird that, feathering his nest. 

Affirmed, by yea and nay. 

Before he'd budge he'd see them all — 

Much further than I'll say. 



28o THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

Said he unto the Commodore: 
"Your bark is on the sea; 
But do not steer for Erie's isle, 
Since that's been struck by me. 
Go, man of sin, and leave me here 
To my theology." 

The dearest ties on earth to some 

Are plainly railroad ties; 

So little wonder that he spoke 

In anger and surprise — 

Tears would not flow; the Commodore, 

It seems, had dammed his eyes. 

Such "Erie" sights, such "Erie'* sounds, 

Came from this Erie crew, 

It seemed indeed a den of lines 

Prepared for Daniel — Drew; 

Not strange that he at last resolved 

To make his own adoo. 

Fleeing from jars — perhaps the jug — 
Dan looked to foreign lands. 
And to his brethren said, "Arise! 
These Bonds put off our hands; 
We will unto New Jersey, where 
My Seminary stands." 

Just how the joust may terminate, 

Nobody knows or cares. 

No need to ask how fares the fight — 

They'll ask us for our fares, 

And whichever side may win, will plow 

The public with its shares. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 28 

So we will sing, Long live the Ring, 

And Daniel, long live he; 

May his high school confer on him 

Exceeding high degree. 

Doubling his D's until, indeed. 

He is D. D., D. D. 



XXVII 

THAT "Seminary" spoken of in the poem 
was Drew Theological Seminary in Madi- 
son, New Jersey. My founding of it 
came about in this way: 

I had been spoken to several times by the preachers 
who used to visit at my house when they came to 
New York, say during Conference week or for 
other occasions, about how fine it would be to estab- 
lish a great theological institution. I had let them 
know that I might be willing, when the time should 
come. Because this was just when the Civil War 
was over. I was then Treasurer and Managing 
Director of the Erie Railroad, and was making 
money so fast I could afford to give some of it away. 

So one day a couple of preachers, Brother McClin- 
tock and Brother Crooks, came and saw me at my 
house. I knew what they were coming for, and was 
there to meet them. It had to be done more or less 
in formal style. I let them in and had them take 
seats. 

They said: "We have come to see what spirit 
you are in, Brother Drew, in reference to the Cen- 
tenary Movement that is about to be inaugurated. 

282 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 283 

What offering are you willing to make in token of 
your gratitude to God for your connection with his 
Church ?" 

I answered right up: "I am willing to donate 
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the 
endowment of a Theological Seminary." 

It didn't take long to clinch the thing. After 
five minutes the interview ended. I never shall 
forget their handclasps and their hearty "God bless 
you's," as they said good-bye at the door. 

We had other interviews. The committee began 
to suggest to me that this would be a great monument 
to Daniel Drew, if the school should be estabHshed 
on a large enough scale. I answered that when I 
put my hand to a thing, I usually did it in proper 
fashion. In fact I couldn't afford to have my name 
connected with any institution, if it was to be only 
a one-horse affair. 

"Supposing we should call it 'Drew Theological 
Seminary,' Brother Drew.?" 

"Why, brethren, I have just said that if my name 
is going to be attached to it in so out-and-out a fash- 
ion, I shall have to take care of the school and see 
it through, no matter what it costs." So I said I 
would give, first, the ground and buildings. Second, 
as the foundation of a library, twenty-five thousand 
dollars. For a permanent endowment fund of the 
Institution, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, 
as soon as the charter should be secured the following 



284 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

winter. And I would swell the amount finally to 
half a million. 

It was so big a gift that a public meeting was 
needed in order to celebrate it. They were setting 
out to raise a million dollars in all, as a fund to 
celebrate the one-hundredth anniversary of the 
church in America. The brethren felt it would 
give the whole movement for this Centenary Fund 
a big boost, to announce right at the start a gift of 
a quarter of a million dollars from me. So a meeting 
was arranged to be held in my big church on Fourth 
Avenue. I looked forward with a good deal of 
pleasure to the time when the gift was to be pub- 
licly announced. 

Finally the night came around — a Thursday 
evening, late in January. It was a stormy night. 
But big preparations had been made for the meeting 
and the church was filled. All our churches in the 
city had joined their choirs into one, which now 
filled the back gallery of the church. A great choir 
it was — well-nigh two hundred voices, I should 
judge. The congregation was so large, I said to 
myself, "If the weather had been fine to-night, this 
church wouldn't have begun to hold the people." 
Brother Crooks opened the meeting, since he and 
Brother McClintock were the ones that had seen me 
in the interview at my house. The opening hymn 
was that well-known one, which is so full of praise; 
and when the enormous choir began it, we in the 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 285 

congregation joined in and there was a volume of 
sound that must have reached to the Pearly Gates. 
I was one of the vice-presidents of the meeting, and 
so sat in the front pew. I'm not much of a singer, 
but I couldn't help joining in the hymn: 

Before Jehovah's awful throne. 
Ye nations how with sacred joy; 
Know that the Lord is God alone; 
He can create and He destroy. 

There was prayer by Dr. Durbin, and an address 
by the chairman of the meeting — a man from some- 
wheres out West. Then another hymn. 

This second hymn fitted into the present occasion 
fine. Because my gift was to be made a kind of 
missionary agent, to coax gifts from other men all 
over the country: 

See how great a flame aspires, 
Kindled by a spark of grace. 
Jesus' love the nations fires. 
Sets the kingdoms on a blaze. 

To bring fire on earth He came; 
Kindled in some hearts it is. 
Oh, that all might catch the flame. 
All partake the glorious bliss! 

As we got into the hymn I felt as though all eyes 
were upon me, even though only a few as yet knew 
of my offer of a quarter of a million dollars. I 



286- THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

looked upon my gift as a kind of seed, that was not 
only going to do good in itself, but was going to 
unlock the purse-strings of other rich men: 

When He first the work began, 
Small and feeble was His day; 
Now the word doth swiftly run, 
Now it wins its widening ray. 

More and more it spreads and grows, 
Ever mighty to prevail; 
Sin's strongholds it now overthrows. 
Shakes the trembling gates of Hell. 

Saw ye not the cloud arise, 
Little as a human hand ^ 
Now it spreads along the skies, 
Hangs o'er all the thirsty land; 

Lo! The promise of a shower 
Drops already from above; 
But the Lord will shortly pour 
All the spirit of His love. 

When the turn of Bishop James came to speak, 
he said that in this Centenary Celebration the author- 
ities had proposed that it be not only a spiritual one, 
but also take a financial character. And these two 
features, the spiritual and the financial, were com- 
bined in Dr. McCHntock's speech, which closed 
the evening. He went on to show the supreme 
importance of the doctrine of holiness in this life. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 287 

"Our Church," said Brother McCHntock, "has 
put forward as its very elementary thought, the great 
central pervading idea of the Holy Book of God 
from the beginning to the end: The holiness of 
the human soul, heart, mind and will. It might 
be called fanaticism, but, dear friends, that is our 
mission. If we keep to that, the next century is 
ours. If we keep to that, the triumphs of the next 
century shall throw those that are past far in the 
shade. Our work is a moral work. That is to 
say, the work of making men holy. There is our 
mission. There is our glory. There is our power.'* 

Then he went on to show the importance of holi- 
ness in consecrating your pocket-book. Said he — 
and now came the public announcement: 

"I think it right to say that one of your members 
has set you a noble example. I hope that Daniel 
Drew's life may be spared to see the erection of a 
Theological Seminary to which he has consecrated 
a quarter of a million dollars, and to which he will 
give as much more before it is finished. It is a grand 



start. 



I wish I could put it down on paper, the applause. 
I sat quiet through it all. But I think I took more 
real joy out of the joy of those people when my gift 
was announced, than out of 'most anything else in 
my life. I felt as though I was doing a work which 
perhaps was bigger than even I myself could realize. 
It seemed as though I was no longer just a person, 



288 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

but was a great and mighty force, working for my 
fellow human beings throughout the wide world, for 
all ages to come. For the speaker went on: 

"God has given us, as you have been told to-night, 
mighty power. We stand here upon our eastern 
coast and look over yonder; there is old Europe. 
We stand upon our western coast and look yonder 
to the west, again, and there's old Asia. Asia, the 
land of population. Europe, the land of ideas. 
And America — the land in which population and 
ideas are to come together. Now think of that! 
Here is the field where the prolific energies of the 
Asiatic life are to be penetrated through and through 
with the sharp and living ideas of a vital Christian 
civilization. Are we up to the grandeur of that 
thought ? " 

This was the closing speech. Of course nothing 
but the doxology could bring such a meeting to a 
fit close. And the swing which was given to those 
grand old words will be remembered, I suppose, 
by every one in that congregation: 

Praise God from whom all blessing flow: 
Praise Him, all creatures here below; 
Praise Him above, ye Heavenly host; 
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. 

The weeks which followed this meeting were 
busy weeks. They were busy for me, because I 
was just getting into the Erie war (which I have 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 289 

wrote about). In fact I was just at that moment 
in the campaign where I broke the market by dump- 
ing onto the Street those fifty-eight thousand shares, 
when nobody thought that I would dare do it. I also 
had my reelection to the Erie Board to look after, 
when Vanderbilt was going to put me out. The 
campaign which terminated in the scampering to 
Jersey City followed. 

They were busy weeks, also, for the Committee 
of Preachers which had my theological school in 
charge. Because I put upon them the work of 
carrying out the details of the school's establishment. 
My first idea had been to locate the school at Carmel. 
I thought it would be well to sort of centre my 
institutions in the region where I had first seen the 
light of day. But, to put up new buildings would 
take too long. Besides, a location nearer New York 
might be more favourable. Out at Perth Amboy, 
New Jersey, was a place called Eagleswood School. 
This had been a boarding school, and I made the 
owner an offer for it. He wouldn't sell at the figure 
I named. 

My attention was then called to the old Gibbons 
estate, "The Forest," out at Madison, New Jersey. 
Thomas Gibbons, as I guess I have wrote, had made 
his home there. He was the one who owned the 
steamboat that Vanderbilt had worked on when he 
came up from Staten Island. Gibbons had also 
been the one to fight the Fulton-Livingston monopoly. 



290 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

which opened the Hudson River and made my 
entrance into the steamboat business possible. His 
son, William Gibbons, was now owner of the estate. 
I looked over the place. It was in a beautiful part 
of the country. The town there has since got to be 
known as the "City of Roses." The country place 
which Gibbons had built at the Forest was large. 
There was a carriage-house, a horse-barn, and the 
owner's residence — a big building with six white 
pillars in front. Gibbons and I dickered for a while. 
We came to terms. The money was paid over. A 
deed was secured. 

We were in a hurry to begin the school. So we 
fitted up the buildings just as they were. Gibbons's 
mansion was made into the main hall of the Seminary. 
I got it called " Mead Hall" (after my wife's name, 
before I married her). The carriage- and horse-barns 
were fitted up for "dormitories" — that's what the 
professors called them; it means places to sleep in. 
And in the month of November, 1867, came the 
exercises which opened the school. 



XXVIII 

IT WAS a red-letter day in my life, the day that 
I went out to Madison, N. J., to attend the 
opening of my seminary. All the big men 
of the church were present. Great preparations 
had been made for the event. I was the central 
figure. But my walk and conversation that day 
were modest, as becomes a Christian. In fact my 
church paper, in describing the celebration, used 
these exact words : 

Of all the company present at Madison on this 
opening day, the most modest and unassuming 
person was Mr. Drew himself. A lady who 
expressed a desire to see the founder of the Seminary 
was told in our hearing that the most unpretentious 
elderly gentleman she saw would be Mr. Drew. 

The description was perfectly exact. Though 
grateful to the church for its recognition of the gift, 
there is in his manner no trace of self-consciousness. 
Mr. Drew has been happy in a great opportunity, 
and has had the wisdom to use it well. His example 
will inspire our men of means to go forward in the 
same direction. 

It was a Wednesday. By ten o'clock that morn- 

291 



292 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

ing the main street of Madison was filled with people, 
guests from nearly all the Eastern states, going to a 
neighbour church which had kindly opened its 
doors for the services. At ten-thirty the service 
began. Dr. McClintock gave out the opening 
hymn. While it was being sung, I couldn't help 
but think of the privilege that was mine in here 
founding a school that was to send forth young men 
year by year to build up the walls of Zion and to 
dispense the sincere milk of the word : 

With stately towers and bulwarks strong, 
Unrivall'd and alone — 
Loved theme of many a sacred song — 
God's holy city shone. 

Thus fair was Zion's chosen seat, 
The glory of all lands; 
Yet fairer and in strength complete, 
The Christian temple stands. 

The faithful of each clime and age 
This glorious church compose; 
Built on a rock, with idle rage. 
The threatening tempest blows. 

Fear not; though hostile bands alarm, 
Thy God is thy defence; 
And weak and powerless every arm 
Against Omnipotence. 

Then the speakers began. Dr. Johnson, from 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 293 

Carlyle, Pa., was one. He referred to the little 
group of young men who were forming the opening 
class in my Seminary. He talked about the kind 
of training which they ought to have. H^e said : 

We don't want them "to draw their materials 
for preaching from philosophy, from science, 
from anything outside of this Book as its founda- 
tion. Look at that inventory of the Christian's 
panoply that Paul gives! While armed from helmet 
to greaves, there's but one defensive weapon, and 
that is the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word 
of God. We want to be able to wield this Sword of 
the Spirit aright. You remember that John, in that 
picture he draws of the great city that he saw in his 
vision, tells us that the sons of God were victorious 
through the blood of the Lamb. Now no Christian 
warrior is qualified to fight until the blood of the 
Lamb has renewed his heart. And in connection 
with the blood of the Lamb is mentioned the word 
of their testimony. And what is the Christian's 
testimony but that of the experience of the great 
truths of this Book which David calls God's tes- 
timonies .? 

I couldn't help but feel, while those words were 
being spoken, that young men trained in such truths 
would become mighty powers in the world. And I 
was glad to think, as I looked upon that band of 
young men, that I was the one who was making it 
possible for them to go forth as tongues of fire in 
the midst of a dark world. 



294 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

If I was inclined at that moment to forget my 
modesty just a little, I don't know but what I really 
did forget it when the last speaker on the morning's 
programme, Dr. North, got up. After expressing 
his admiration for the beautiful scene which we were 
there enacting, he said that other gifts from other 
rich men were also greatly needed. Then, with an 
outburst, he exclaimed: 

"Oh, that we had one more Daniel Drew!" 

This closed the morning's exercises. I have wrote 
about the thing in full, because it was an historic 
occasion. Not that I remember out of my head all 
the words that were spoken and the things that were 
done. It's all here before me, in clippings from 
my ISlew York Christian Advocate. 

At the conclusion of the morning exercises, we 
repaired, several hundred strong, to the Seminary 
grounds, a short distance west of the village, where, 
in the edifice heretofore known as the Forest Hill 
Mansion, and now lavishly reconstructed, the guests 
found, in the room which is henceforth to be the 
chapel, a sumptuous entertainment provided by my 
liberality for their refreshment, and beneath whose 
savoury burden the tables literally groaned; while 
others were as bounteously provided for in the town 
hall, turned, for the time being, into a tastefully 
garlanded refectory. (Refectory means a place to 
eat.) After doing ample justice to the viands now 
spread before them in prodigal profusion, the visi- 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 295 

tors, many of them distinguished divines who had 
come from afar to grace the occasion with their 
presence, and whose eloquence signahzed the inaugu- 
ral and has made the event memorable, were invited 
to examine the buildings and ground, to which 
they promptly responded, and concluded their 
inspection with the most unbounded admiration 
of the premises, profuse felicitations to the 
donor, and unqualified approbation of the judg- 
ment of him and his advisors in the selection they 
had made. 

In fact, the meal that day wasn't any of your 
nose-bag feeds — no snatch-and-go kind of a thing. 
We had moved tables into the big room of what had 
been old Tom Gibbons's house. The meal was a 
rib-tickler. A restaurant man had been hired for 
the occasion. He had got orders from me to put up 
as costly victuals as he could find, and send the bill 
to me. And now, as I looked over the crowd, and 
saw them stowing the good things away under their 
belts, I was glad I hadn't been stingy in the matter. 
I remembered how, in my old drover days, I used 
to get hungry enough sometimes to drink pig's milk. 
We didn't have any such viands as these to eat, back 
in those days. 

The exercises in the afternoon began at half- 
past two. This wasn't a Sunday. Yet the ser- 
vices were almost like what they are on a Lord's 
Day. We started off by singing that hymn which 



296 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

is so fit when young men are setting forth into the 
beautiful life of the Christian ministry: 

Go, preach my Gospel, saith the Lord; 
Bid the whole world my grace receive; 
He shall be saved who trusts my word. 
And he condemn'd who won't believe. 

ril make your great commission known, 
And ye shall prove my gospel true. 
By all the works that I have done. 
By all the wonders ye shall do. 

Teach all the nations my commands — 
I'm with you till the world shall end; 
All power is trusted in my hands — 
I can destroy and I defend. 

Philip Phillips was there, and sang in a sweet 
voice: "There Will Be No More Sorrow There." 
In the morning he had also helped out with his 
beautiful hymn: "I'll Sing for Jesus." After the 
solo. Dr. McClintock made a speech in which he 
told about the school and its plans. Said he: 

The full extent of Mr. Drew's gift was not 
announced at the beginning. He is one of those men 
who do more than they promise. You should know 
that he founded a Young Ladies' Academy at Carmel. 
That gift was entirely apart from and in addition 
to the Centenary gift involved in the Theological 
Seminary. What will be the extent of these two 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 297 

donations, I do not know. This much I do know, 
that Mr. Drew is not in the habit of putting his 
hands to any object and letting it go unfinished or 
half accomplished. 

When he finished, I felt that even if I hadn't been 
of a mind to help the school in a big way, I ought 
to do it now. 

Dr. Porter represented the Newark Conference 
at the exercises. The announcement of the "Drew 
Theological Seminary," he said, had made his heart 
leap for joy. He was persuaded that God in his 
providence was leading the Church to adopt those 
measures and take steps from time to time that were 
calculated to meet the exigencies of the times and 
advance the interests of His cause. He added that 
it was the mission of the Church to arouse the public 
mind with regard to experimental and practical 
religion, and this it had done. 

Dr. Cummings was there, from Middletown, Ct. 
His words were even more personal. Said he: 

Among the thoughts that have suggested them- 
selves to my mind to-day is that of the noble 
illustration exhibited on this occasion of the Chris- 
tian use of money. We know that men often 
give liberally for worthy objects, and yet the influ- 
ence of that gift is transient. It accomplishes a 
good work, but it lacks the element of permanency 
in its influence. The history of educational insti- 
tutions is, in this respect, remarkably encouraging. 



298 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

Nothing can be nobler than to give the funds and 
moneys which God himself has bestowed. 

I wish I could give more of his talk. It was a very 
good speech. It made me better acquainted with 
his college up there in Connecticut; and I have 
helped it out also with some money. 

The speech of Bishop Janes was one that I thought 
must do the young students for the ministry a lot of 
good. In fact, they were words that everybody 
ought to lay to heart. He said: 

I assume that all the young men who come 
here for the advantages of this institution will 
be Christian young men; that, having received the 
grace of repentance they have been justified by 
faith and regenerated by Divine Grace. I assume, 
also, that they have been led to feel in their own 
minds that they were moved by the Holy Ghost to 
take upon them the work and office of the Chris- 
tian pastorate; that they don't take upon themselves 
this honour, but are called to it of God, as was Aaron. 
I also assume that the church has been convinced 
of the correctness of the convictions by their natural 
gifts and Christian graces and the unction attend- 
ing their religious exercises, and has recommended 
them to the travelling connection for pastoral work. 

Now, with these assumptions, I ask, what is 
necessary for these young men .? Knowledge and 
discipline. They are ambassadors of God. It 
is, therefore, all-important that they have a know- 
ledge of God, of His mind, of His will, of His relation 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 299 

to us, and especially of His mind and will concern- 
ing our salvation. It is necessary that they should 
understand human character, the condition of the 
human mind and the human heart, the passions, 
affections, aspirations, desires and purposes of 
men. 

Now our discipline says that we are to read 
the Bible and such books as help to a knowledge 
of the same; and the original languages of the Scrip- 
tures may be important to us in learning these 
things, in giving us the different shades of mean- 
ing and enabling us more perfectly to understand 
our translation of the word of God. Now, having 
this knowledge of God and man, we need drilling. 
We propose to train our young men in the camp. 
We expect men here trained to fight in the skir- 
mishes of the Lord or to lead a forlorn hope. Our 
Government doesn't send men to West Point to pre- 
pare them to carry the musket, but expects every 
man to be an officer. And in the education of men 
here, we don't expect those who go from this institu- 
tion simply to stand in the rank and file of Imman- 
uel's Army. We expect every man to be competent 
to be a leader and lead forward God's sacramental 
hosts, and to lead onward and onward, until all 
the cohorts of error are driven from the world, and 
the standard of Immanuel is triumphant over all 
lands. And I charge the founder of this institution 
and the trustees and faculty to see to it that the 
young men under their care are not only informed, 
but disciplined and drilled, until ready for camp or 
field. 

I call upon the authorities of this institution to 
see that this place is our Jerusalem, where the 



300 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

young men who tarry here shall be indued with 
power from on high and go forth in the name and 
strength of God to subdue this world to His author- 
ity. I now invoke the benediction of God upon 
our beloved brother, whose munificence has brought 
us together on this occasion. And I pray that 
God may command His blessings upon those who, 
from time to time, enjoy its advantages. That, 
being themselves blessed by it, they may be made 
a blessing to mankind. 

The last speaker was Dr. Allen of Girard College. 
He spoke more or less off-hand. But his words 
were full of meat: 

If there has ever been any prejudice in our 
church against our men of wealth, the donations 
of Mr. Drew would do much to cause it to disappear 
and to vanish forever. The church needs the money 
of its wealthy men. If more of them would give 
according to their means, as our worthy friend has 
given, no doubt this prejudice would entirely cease. 
I will only add that, in speaking of the eminent 
founder of this institution, we fear him not as a rich 
man. If my classical friend. Dr. McClintock, will 
allow me, I will put a negative in a classical des- 
cription Virgil once used: 

^^ISfon timeo Danaos dona ferentes,!^ 

(Those words tacked onto the tail end there, are 
from one of the dead languages. I don't just remem- 
ber now what it was that some one told me they 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 301 

meant. But it was something like: "A man is not 
dangersome, if he brings a gift.") 

With the benediction, the services which opened 
Drew Theological Seminary came to an end. I 
came away feeling, in the words of the benediction, 
the peace of God which passeth all understanding. 
The New York Christian Advocate said: "We 
most heartily congratulate the munificent founder 
and patron of the new seminary in view of its pro- 
pitious inauguration, and also upon its fortunate 
location and the highly commodious buildings and 
ample grounds in which the nascent 'school of the 
prophets' begins its career." 



XXIX 

I WAS glad that the opening of my theological 
School came just when it did. Because 
it fitted into a niche in the year's work when 
I had the time to attend it. If, instead of coming 
in November, it had come two months earlier, it 
would have found me right in the midst of my 
dicker to get back into the Director's Board and 
Treasuryship of the Erie Road. And if it had come 
three months later, it would have found me in the 
midst of the war with the Commodore. Maybe, 
just at the time when the opening services were 
being held, it would have found me at Taylor's 
Hotel. Of course, in that latter case I could have 
gone to Madison, it being also outside of York 
State's jurisdiction. Still, it would have been incon- 
venient for me; because those weeks at **Fort Taylor" 
were weeks of so much distress of mind, that I couldn't 
have entered into the spirit of the inaugural occasion 
as I felt it deserved. 

These were months, anyhow, in which I was hard 
pushed by business cares. Just when the first year 
of my Theological Seminary was drawing to a close, 
a bad accident happened on the Erie Road, which 

302 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 303 

enemies tried to lay at my door. An express train 
was coming along from the West one night. It had 
made the trip safely until it got to Cam's Rock, 
some sixteen miles west of Port Jervis. The road 
at that point is cut into the side of a precipice, over- 
hanging a gorge. It was the last place where a rail- 
road treasurer would like to have an accident. 
As bad luck would have it, just at that point is 
where the accident took place. 

As the train was rushing along in the darkness 
of the early morning, the wheels in some way got off 
the rails and four cars were hurled down the embank- 
ment. They dropped eighty feet to the bottom 
and were crushed into a tangled mass. Twenty- 
two people were killed, and all the survivors mangled. 
The rear car was a sleeping coach. This was so 
smashed that the passengers inside couldn't get out. 
It caught on fire, and the people were burned alive. 
The shrieks of the passengers as they tried to get out 
of the burning car, were described in the newspapers 
the next day. Public feeling was aroused. The 
people out around Port Jervis held an indignation 
meeting. They got up an investigation to find out 
the cause of the " murder," as they called it. They 
seemed to think that some of us who were at the head 
of the road had set about to kill those poor passen- 
gers intentionally. It was the most unheard-of 
charge that a man ever had to stand up against. 
So I was glad when the investigation committee had 



304 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

got through and made its report. Because then 
it was seen very clearly that the horrible thing 
wasn't a "murder" at all, but had happened just by 
accident. 

However, I was not altogether pleased at the way 
this committee worded its report. I had tried to 
give out to the public that the accident had been 
caused by the spring rains, and by the softening of the 
road-bed, due to the winter's frost coming out of the 
ground, causing the rails to spread under the weight 
of the engine. But the coroner's report said that the 
accident was due to the rotten condition of the rails. 
It said that an inspection of the track at that 
point had showed that some of the rails had 
been used so long that they were worn to rags. 
This increased the public clamour. The investiga- 
tion went on further and dug up unpleasant 
points in connection with my management of the 
road. 

The truth is, I had been obliged for some time back 
to scrimp expenses on the road-bed. The superin- 
tendent of that department had been pestering me 
for a long time back, because of the "worn-out and 
rotten condition of the rails," as he put it. He was 
a faithful fellow, one who took the welfare of the road 
very much to heart. But he was for improvements, 
no matter what the cost. I had the financial end 
to look after. New rails for five hundred miles of 
road-bed cost a sum of money which track foremen 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 305 

haven't big enough minds to grasp. I was con- 
stantly more put to it than the Erie workmen had 
any idea of, to keep the road even in as good a con- 
dition as it was. It is true that I had got the direc- 
tors of the road several times to vote to borrow 
money for buying steel rails to replace the worn-out 
iron rails. But I had invariably found, as soon as 
the money was raised, that I needed it in my stock- 
market operations. However, I wanted to keep the 
road up. As a matter of fact, I had told the super- 
intendent of road-beds to go ahead and order new 
rails — had given my full authority for the pur- 
chase. But, unfortunately, the manufacturer of 
rails sent the order back unhonoured — said that 
our last purchase hadn't been paid for as yet, and 
he wasn't going to send any more until we paid for 
those we already had. So, as the next best thing, 
I had got the old rails taken up and turned. A 
train wears out the inside of the rail more than the 
outside, because the flange of the wheel rubs against 
the inside edge. I figured that to have the rails 
turned was the next best thing to getting new rails 
altogether. 

That's the long and short of the whole thing. I 
got lots of blame at the time for the killing of those 
poor people, and for their burning alive in that sleep- 
ing car. So I want to state my side of the case. 
The New York Advocate was very considerate 
and charitable towards me. But Harper s Weekly 



3o6 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

came out against me and my fellow operators of the 
road without any charity at all : 

"The directors of the Erie Railway," it said, 
"deserve the moral reprobation of the community. 
Had they been in any degree as solicitous for the 
proper condition of their road and for the safety 
of the passengers whom they entrapped into their 
trains, as they have shown themselves for the per- 
sonal advantages that might arise from speculating 
in the stock, this horrible catastrophe would not 
have happened. The Legislature is in session, and 
we hope that it will do something to protect the 
public against the mingled rapacity and neglect 
of the Erie Railway management; let it decide that 
travellers shall not be recklessly massacred." 

But I didn't care what the papers said. No matter 
what you do, people are sure to put a wrong con- 
struction upon it. The best way is to be boiler- 
plated, so to speak, and not mind what the papers 
say. A bare-footed conscience would suffer con- 
siderably in treading among thorns. For instance, 
there was old Enoch Crosby. I guess I've wrote 
about him in these papers somewhere. He's the 
one that was a spy during the Revolutionary War, 
and now lies up in the Old Gilead Burying Lot at 
Carmel. That man, when he was working as a spy 
for the patriot troops in the war, had to tell stories 
now and then that didn't just square with the truth. 
Well, he was that prickly in his conscience that, after 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 307 

the war was over, he wouldn't join the church, 
because of those fibs he had been forced to tell. He 
was always present at meeting time. He was even 
treasurer of the church. But, for year after year, 
he wouldn't apply for membership, because he wor- 
ried so much over those little lies he had told while 
he was a Revolutionary spy. People told him he 
was good enough to join any church. But he 
wouldn't hear to it. This lasted going on thirty 
year. All that time he was interested in the church 
and a worker for her. Finally, when he had got to 
be an old man, he up and said he would unite with 
the church if they were willing to take him in. Which 
they did. So he became a member. This was when 
I was a boy in Carmel. The people then were all 
talking about how Enoch Crosby had finally got into 
the church. 

What I'm saying is, Crosby ought not to have 
been so thin-skinned. Those little fibs he told were 
when he was in active business. If he had told the 
gospel truth every time, he wouldn't have been so 
good a spy. He had to stretch the truth now and 
then, in order to get his work done. He was a fool 
to think that just because he had had to do that sort 
of thing in his business life, he couldn't get into the 
church. The church isn't so skittish as that. Some 
folks think she is. But she isn't. She's not squeam- 
ish in such matters. She takes a practical view of 
things every time. Why, there was that preacher I 



3o8 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

have wrote about, who got me to give the money for 
Drew Seminary. He didn't stickle over what my 
enemies were saying about me. He used to tell 
the story of the founding of the school, like this: 

It was rumoured that Daniel Drew was disposed 
to found, as a thank-offering to God, a Theological 
School in or near New York. We were appointed 
by our denomination a committee to wait upon Mr. 
Drew and ascertain his position. I shall never 
forget the pleasant interview which we had with 
Mr. Drew in his home. With the utmost simplicity 
of manner he informed us that it was his wish to 
devote a quarter of a million dollars to the founding 
of a Theological School. Let me pause for a mo- 
ment to give my impression of this remarkable man. 
To me he was one of the pleasantest figures in our 
fold. Reticent, no doubt, but loyal to his church, 
and sensible to his obligations to our denomination 
for building up in him the traits that had led to his 
prosperity. He delighted to think of the way he 
had been led on. For my part, I am glad this school 
bears his name. 

If Enoch Crosby had been able to do his day's 
work, and always tell the full truth, then of course 
he should. But there are times when it isn't so 
easy. A business man has got to get along somehow. 
Better that my hog should come dirty home, than no 
hog at all. 



XXX 

I WAS now one of the biggest men in the 
country. I had fought Vanderbilt to a 
draw. That meant much. Vanderbilt was 
by this time a man of power, so that ordinary people 
were scared of him. But I wasn't. He was rich. 
But so was I. My property at this time footed 
up to thirteen million dollars. (If I only had 
stopped to think, Fd have seen it was an unlucky 
figure, and would have dodged it in some way. If 
it had been twelve millions, or fourteen millions, I 
might have had better luck in keeping it.) My 
bread was buttered on both sides, so to speak. I 
had a great mansion at Union Square, had my own 
stable, and a servant to drive my horse and milk 
my cow. When I went down to Broad Street the 
people would point me out to strangers. I was one 
of the big men of the Street. 

Maybe I hadn't had so much book-learning as some. 
But I had more money than many a man whose 
head was chock-full of book-learning. My clerks, 
who had more schooling than I, didn't dare to put 
on any of their bookish airs around me. They knew 
I could buy them out ten times over. One night 

309 



3IO THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

on leaving the office I set the combination of the safe 
at the letters which spelled the word, "Doare." 
The next day I was kept at my house for some time. 
The clerks wanted to open the safe. So they sent 
up. I told them the combination was for the word 
"Doare.'* They didn't talk back. They were too 
much scared of me for that. They tried to open the 
safe. Pretty soon they sent again: "Mr, Drew, 
what was the word that you said was the combination 
for the safe this morning .?" 

"Doare," I said, "an ordinary house doare, barn 
doare, stable doare — any kind of a doare.'* 

"But," they insisted, "there are five letters to 
the combination of our safe. Are you sure it's the 
word doare .? We've tried it — several ways." 

"Of course I'm sure!" said I. "Turn to those 
letters and it will work." 

But they had trouble with the thing, and finally 
I had to go down and help them out. When I took 
the thing in hand, the safe opened as easy as anything. 
I turned to them: 

"There," said I, "it opens as easy as an old sack. 
Just d-o-a-r-e." 

I have found out since that the ordinary house 
doare is commonly spelled in a different way from 
that. And I dare say some of those clerks poked 
fun at me at the time; but it wasn't when I was 
around. Book-learning is something, but thirteen 
million dollars is also something, and a mighty sight 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 311 

more. Why, on the walls of my house out at Drews- 
clift, I had, framed and hung up, a cancelled check 
of mine for one million dollars. It used to make 
the people out there stare their eyes out when they 
came to see me and I would show them that picture 
on the wall. 

Then there were my steamboats. I was now 
president of the People's Line. Isaac Newton had 
been the first president. But during the Civil War 
the boat that was named after him got afire and had 
to be sent to the bottom. It was during one of her 
trips up to Albany, and while she was opposite 
Fort Washington. It w^as found that the fire had 
broken out because the back part of the arch of the 
starboard boiler had blowed down, due to the shat- 
tering of the pins which hold the braces in position. 
The excitement and exposure was too much for poor 
Newton (he was another of your thin-skinned men). 
Nine of the passengers lost their lives in the accident 
to his boat. He sickened and died. 

So I became president. St. John took my place 
as treasurer. Then we built that great new boat, 
the Drew. I don't mean the old Daniel Drew. 
That was a day-boat. I never was very proud of 
her. She was too narrow. When she had many 
passengers aboard she would list over, like a horse 
v/ith a sore foot. The Drew didn't list over. She 
stood up, her keel even, no matter how many pas- 
sengers she was carrying. For she was a floating 



312 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

palace — and is even yet. Cost ^800,000. She 
could sleep a thousand people. I was proud to 
have my picture at the head of the stairway leading 
up into the passenger saloon. Maybe people have 
wondered to see, as the owner of so great a boat, a 
plain-looking man, his face criss - crossed with 
wrinkles. But I started out as a boy so poor, I 
didn't even own a rowboat. And it's always the 
case, a wrinkled purse makes a wrinkled face. I 
suppose, too, that some people have thought Vander- 
bilt a much more stylish man than me, because he 
wears his beard on the sides of his face, whilst I wear 
mine under my chin. But those little points don't 
count. And I have seen people stand at that plat- 
form half-way up the stairs, and look at my full-length 
portrait there for as much as five minutes at a time. 
I used to ride on the boat often. It was a pleasant 
way to take a trip on a hot summer's night; and 
didn't cost a penny. In going to Saratoga I used 
to take one of the bridal chambers for my stateroom, 
if there weren't any bridal couples on board. During 
the summer time, at this period of my life, I and 
my family used to have a tent up in the garden 
back of the Grand Union Hotel, taking our meals 
at the hotel table. I could go to Saratoga without 
its costing anything; and I used to like the air up 
there. That is the way I got acquainted with John 
Morrissey. He had his gambling house right oppo- 
site the Congress Park. So when I would go out 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 313 

in the morning to take a drink of the spring water, 
I used to meet him. But I never would go into 
his place. Gambling is a sin that I didn't want to 
countenance. But I used to have many good chats 
with Morrissey, and when he and I were going up 
the river in my boat, we would visit way into the 
night. 

I also had a tent down at Ocean Grove (which 
was then just beginning to be settled). Before 
Ocean Grove came, Peney's Grove at Brewsters', 
and the camp just out of Sing Sing, amidst those 
great oak trees, used to be my favourite camp meet- 
ings. It was a refreshment both to body and spirit, 
when August set in, to get away from business cares, 
set up my tent at one or the other of these camp 
meetings, and receive a blessing. 

In the summer time also, before the camp meetings 
opened, I would go out to my big farm, between 
Brewsters' and Carmel. I don't know but what 
I enjoyed myself raising fat beeves there almost 
as much as I did my work in Wall Street. I knew 
how to handle money, and I knew also how to handle 
critters. Western breeds were the ones I kept 
mostly on my farm. And I had fine luck with them. 
One year, out of a hundred and twenty head of 
cattle sold from my farm, a hundred weighed over 
a thousand pounds in the beef. My son, Billy, 
must have learned the trick of cattle raising from 
me. Because when he went to live on the farm, 



314 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

he surprised me one year by sending to the New York 
market a pair of oxen which took the prize. We 
had a big time down in Wall Street when those oxen 
were led through. One of them was called "Com- 
modore Vanderbilt" and the other, "Daniel Drew." 
They were all fixed up with flags and trimmings 
and knickknacks. There was a band of music 
to lead the procession. When they came by my 
office, at 30 Broad Street, I looked out of the 
door and was proud to think I had a son that could 
raise a pair of cattle like that. Their picture was 
painted in oil, and is a witness to this day to the fine 
stock that these York State hills can breed, when a 
man knows how. 

Besides my money and boats and farms, there 
was something else which made me one of the big 
men of the country. This was my position in the 
Street. It's a great thing to be an insider. Even 
a man with as much money as I, wouldn't have been 
so big as I was, unless he had been on the inside 
of the great operating cliques. We were so power- 
ful that even the law couldn't get in and bother us 
with its technicalities. The London Times had to 
admit our great power. That paper come out with 
a howl like this : 

The parties concerned have long ago shown 
that there is no financial iniquity which persons 
in command of money cannot commit in Wall Street 
with entire impunity, as regards legal consequence 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 315 

in the Civil Courts, and very nearly, also, as regards 
social position. 

Of course this London paper was bound to be 
more or less bitter, and blow about "financial 
iniquity" and such-like. Because the British stock- 
holders in Erie had for a long time back been trying 
to oust me from control of the road. That is why 
this sheet of theirs kept slurring me as it did. 

But I didn't care. I was on top. At this time 
in my life, all my eggs had two yolks. Most every 
deal I went into turned out prosperous. I was as 
contented as mice in a cheese. 



XXXI 

I SOMETIMES wish I had stayed in the 
steamboat business and let Wall Street 
alone. Fd have made money in a more steady 
way and without the risk. Steamboats are not so 
liable to ups and downs as stocks are. And at this 
time I was earning from my steamboats alone enough 
money to have made me in time a man of comfort- 
able means. 

But the trouble with business of that kind is, 
there are so many little things to look after, which 
keep you on the go well-nigh all the time. Because 
the profits from a business line are made up of a 
lot of small profits; and each detail is liable to leak 
money unless you look out. 

For instance, there was the one item of the bar, on 
my steamboats. Going into the bar one day on the 
steamboat Drew, who should I see there but the 
Captain of the boat taking a drink. I was going 
to be mad at first, and stood watching him in order 
to think what I should do. He stood very cool, 
finished his glass, put it down, and then paid the 
bartender a quarter. When I saw that, I wasn't 
so mad. 

316 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 317 

"Do the employees on the boat pay every time 
they get anything from the bar ?" I asked. 

"Always," said he; "at least I do. In fact, 
Mr. Drew, I find it a very good way to keep in check 
a natural propensity of mine which might otherwise 
grow into something inconvenient." I was glad to 
know that he always paid; but the incident merely 
shows the many leaks that could occur in a business 
as big as this steamboat business of mine, if a fellow 
were to follow it up as a life pursuit. 

Then, also, there is the bother which small business 
matters bring you. I had a lawsuit hanging over 
my head for years over the sale of the steamboat, 
Francis Skiddy. It belonged to the line which went 
from New York to Troy. I sold it to the People's 
Line. In reality I was buyer and seller too. Because 
I owned a controlling interest in both lines, and so 
could make the seller sell, and the buyer buy. Well, 
some of the smaller Skiddy stock-holders got mad 
at the transaction and sued me for damages. Because 
on the last trip of that boat, just before she was 
going to be delivered to the People's Line, she ran 
on a rock off of Statt's Landing, and ripped a hole 
in her bottom sixteen feet long and three planks 
wide. This, of course, lowered now by a good deal 
the selling value of the boat. And yet gave me the 
thing I wanted out of her, the engine. This was 
still undamaged, and could now be transferred 
into another boat, and at a reasonable figure. I 



3i8 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

had been wanting the Skiddy engine for this other 
boat a long time back. I gave out that her running 
on the rocks just at this time when the sale was about 
to be made, was an accident which I hadn't had 
anything to do with. But her stock-holders made 
a big fuss. They went into court and sued me for 
sixty thousand dollars. The thing dragged and 
dragged, and now finally the court has made me pay 
it. It merely shows the vexations of spirit that 
come when you are in a business line. 

I like Wall Street because you stand a chance of 
making money there so much faster than you can 
in the slow-poke ways of regular business. One 
turn of two or three points in shares will, if you are 
on the right side and have put out a big enough line, 
net you as much money in six days as an ordinary 
business would in six months. By this time I had 
got so that I knew all the ins and outs of Wall Street. 
There are trade secrets in every calling. The new- 
comer is always at a discount compared to the old 
veteran. I found that many times now I could 
turn this expert knowledge of mine to account. 
One morning, I remember, I was riding down to 
the Street in the carriage of a young stock operator 
who had taken me in with him, to save paying fare 
in the Broadway stage. He knew that I was on the 
inside of some of the big stock-market operations, 
and he thought he might get some inside tips. I had 
looked for something of the sort to occur. It's a 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 319 

caution the way outsiders hang around people who 
are on the inside. The flies get at you when you're 
covered with honey. Whilst we were driving down 
Broadway he pumped and pumped; but I was as 
dumb as a heifer. I made believe there were big 
things just then under way which we, who were 
on the inside, didn't want other people to get onto. 

Well, when we reached the Street, and he had got 
the carriage stopped in front of my ofl[ice, I opened 
the door and stepped out. In doing so, I contrived 
to bump my hat against the top of the doorway. 
It was a black felt hat. (I like black felt for a hat. 
It's so durable. You can wear one several 
years before it begins to show signs of wear.) My 
hat fell off^, and some pieces of paper fell out. On 
those pieces of paper I had written what seemed 
to be orders to my brokers: " Buy 500 Erie, at 68." 
"Buy 1,000 at 67." "Buy 2,000 Erie at the market." 
"Buy 3,000 Erie at 67 J," and such-like. Of course, 
as they spread over the floor of the carriage, he or 
any one else couldn't help but see what they were, 
and read them. I made believe I was awfully put 
out to have the secret given away like that. I made 
a scramble as though to gather them up before any 
one should see them; then I said good-bye and 
went into my office. 

I calculated he would most likely act on the hint. 
And he did. He drove rapidly to his office. He 
told his crowd of the discovery he had made. "A 



320 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

big Bulling movement in Erie is on! The old man" 
(that's what they sometimes called me) "is buying 
Erie! A campaign is under way. Boys, we 
must get in on this!'' So he bought a block of five 
thousand shares of Erie. The rest of his crowd 
followed him. Their combined buying forced Erie 
up point after point. 

That was what I had been looking for. I had been 
wanting for some time back to find a buyer for some 
of my surplus stock. Now it was coming my 
way fine. I immediately dumped onto the market 
all the Erie it would stand. I succeeded in disposing 
of a large share of my holdings at the top figure. 
Then of course the market broke. It sagged four 
points in the next two days. My broker friend and 
his crowd were badly caught. He came to me with 
a face as long as your arm; said how he had been 
led to believe that there was going to be an upward 
movement in Erie; he had bought heavily; and now 
it had all gone to smash. "Uncle, what in the 
world shall I do ?" 

I told him he could do anything he pleased. And 
I couldn't keep from chuckling at the fine way I had 
got him to gobble the bait. In fact I always did 
like a joke. So much so that they got to calling 
me the "Merry Old Gentleman of Wall Street." 
They had other names for me, too; such as, "the 
Speculative Director," "the Big Bear," "the Old 
Man of the Street" and so on. Some of these 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 321 

names I didn't like. But "the Merry Old Gentle- 
man" — I kind of liked that. I believe in being 
merry when you can. A good chuckle, when you've 
got a fellow in a tight box and you watch him squirm 
this way and that, does more good than a dose of 
medicine. 

As to this particular Erie deal, by thus making a 
market for my shares, I cleaned up a fine profit. 
That merely shows how an operator, if he is onto 
the tricks of the trade and has natural ingenuity 
besides, can make business in a sick market, where 
a newcomer would have to sit and twiddle his thumbs. 

I have always had a natural bent for stock-market 
dickers. I suppose it's because I have been sort 
of humble in my manner. That puts people off 
their guard. (I never was proud, anyhow. People 
used to say: You couldn't tell from Dan Drew's 
clothing but what he was a butcher in a Third 
Avenue shop. But I let them talk. You can't 
tell a horse by his harness. And I have always 
thought a man should have more in his pocket than 
on his back.) I have found a spirit of humility 
very helpful. It makes the man you're dealing with 
think he is winding you around his finger; whereas 
you are the one who is doing the winding. 

That's how I got the best of a lawyer friend of 
mine once. He was a young fellow. I had him do 
some legal work for me. He did it. Then he sent 
in a bill. It seemed an almighty big fee to ask for just 



322 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

a few months' work. I paid it. But I made up 
my mind Td get it back. And I did. I was talk- 
ing with him not long after. I turned the conversation 
to Wall Street matters. 

"Sonny/' said I, "you won that lawsuit for 
me, and Fve taken a kind of liking to you. I want 
to help you. We fellows on the inside sometimes 
know what's going to happen in stock-market affairs 
before other people. It's my advice to you to take 
some of your spare cash, all the money you can lay 
your hands on, in fact, and buy Erie stock." 

He held off. He said that his business was law 
and not the stock-market. He believed that a shoe- 
maker should stick to his lasts. Fair words made 
him look to his purse. And such-like. 

"Now, son," said I, "do as I say. I knew your 
father. And because of that friendship, I feel a 
kind of interest in you. I want to see you get a start. 
You buy Erie. Buy all you can of it, at the present 
market price. Trust me, you'll never be sorry." 
He thought for a while. He said he guessed he'd 
try the thing for once. 

That was what I'd been waiting for. I went 
out and immediately gave orders to my brokers to 
sell all the Erie they could. Soon the ticker told 
me that my brokers were finding a buyer for the 
Erie they were offering. I thought I could give 
a pretty shrewd guess as to who was the buyer. I 
supplied him with all he would take. By the time 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 323 

the market broke, I had saddled him with enough 
Erie at a good high figure to sluice from his pocket 
into mine all of that fee which he had scooped out 
of me just a few weeks before. I now called the 
account even. 



XXXII 

FOR a spell after settling up with the Com- 
modore at the close of the Erie War, 
I got out of Wall Street. I was by this time 
over my scriptural allowance of three score years and 
ten. I thought I had earned a rest. I figured that I 
had made my wad, and now should begin to enjoy it. 

Let worldly minds the world pursue; 

It has no charms for me. 
Once I admired its trifles, too. 

But grace has set me free. 

I seemed to myself to be now in a quiet harbour, 
like that fine big bay that dents in from the Hudson 
River at Fishkill. I could look out from that safe 
retreat onto the human vessels that were tossing 
in the billows outside. "From every stormy wind 
that blows" — that has always been a favourite 
hymn of mine. And that other tune, too: 

Oh, Beulah Land, Sweet Beulah Land, 
Where on the highest mount I stand; 
I look away across the sea. 
Where mansions are prepared for me. 
And view the shining glorious shore. 
My heaven, my home forever more. 

324 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 325 

But after two or three months of nothing to do, 
I kind of got tired of resting. I saw Gould and Fisk 
making money in Erie hand over fist, and I hankered 
to get back. I wanted to stick a finger in that 
pudding, so to speak. They had taken Bill Tweed 
and Pete Sweeney into the Board of Directors. 
This was giving them such a fine pull with the law 
courts and the New York City authorities that they 
could do most anything they wanted to, and not be 
troubled with suits or legal technicalities. Tweed 
became a director of the railroad, "to get square 
with Erie," as he put it. For he was still nettled 
over those old losses in Erie speckilations which he 
said I had caused him, and now he vowed he was 
going to get it back — was going to take it out of 
the road, no matter what it cost her. When I had 
got out of Erie at the time of our settlement with 
Vanderbilt, I figured that in taking my pay in cash 
and leaving Fisk and Gould the road, I had got the 
best end of the bargain. I was chuckling to myself 
to think how I had taken the horse, so to speak, and 
had left them holding onto the halter. But Jay's 
words were proving true. And although Erie seemed 
a badly waterlogged craft, there was a lot of service 
left in her yet. Therefore I wanted to get back 
on board, so to speak. 

At the time of that settlement, a little feeling had 
arisen between me and the other two. Jay and 
Jimmy. But personal feelings don't count in Wall 



326 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

Street. Operators can swear everlasting vengeance 
on each other one day, and be thick as molasses j 
before sundown the next. In financial circles, it's 
the money that counts. No matter how mad you 
may be at a fellow, if you need his money you make 
up with him easy as anything. Erie was still a 
money-maker. So I wanted to get on the inside 
once more. If I could have another turn or two 
at the milking stool, so to speak, I felt Fd be willing 
to retire from active business altogether. Accord- 
ingly, before the summer was over, I was calling 
on Gould and Fisk, and they were coming to see 
me, just as though we hadn't had any differences 
at all. Before I knew it, I was back in the thick 
of things, and busy as a pup. 

We now set out on a Bear campaign — we three, 
Gould, Fisk and I. Being backed by Tweed and 
his political crowd, it promised big returns. But 
it required a lot of nerve. In fact, before it was 
through, it raised more excitement than I had bar- 
gained for. It was the Lock-up of greenbacks. 

It seemed a foolhardy thing to do — go short of 
stocks just at that particular time. Because it 
was the fall of the year. The Government reports 
showed that bumper crops were to be harvested in 
nearly all parts of the country. A big traffic from 
the West to the seaboard was promised. The 
election of General Grant as president was almost 
a settled thing; and if he was elected, the policy of 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 327 

the Government would be an immediate resumption 
of specie payment. Money was easy as an old shoe. 
When money is easy, stocks go up. Because at 
such times people have got the means to margin 
large holdings and so are hopeful and Bullish. It 
was about the last time in the world, one would have 
said, to begin a Bear campaign. But that's really 
just the time in which to begin it. Because the way 
to make money in Wall Street, if you are an insider, 
is to calculate on what the common people are going 
to do, and then go and do just the opposite. When 
everybody is Bullish, that is just the time when you 
can make the most money as a Bear, if you work it 
right. And we of our little clique thought we could 
work it right. 

When money is easy the public buys stocks, and 
so the prices go up. The way to do, we calculated, 
would be to make money tight. Then people would 
sell, prices would go down, and we could cover our 
short contracts at a fine low figure. In this work 
of making money tight we were helped by one fact. 
The Government, in order to resume specie pay- 
ments, had adopted a policy of contracting the 
amount of greenbacks in circulation. It was refus- 
ing to reissue greenback notes after it had once got 
them back into its vaults. 

But that wasn't enough to tighten the currency 
to the point where it would serve our ends. So we 
set about working it ourselves. For this purpose 



328 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

we made a pool of money to the amount of fourteen 
millions. Fisk and Gould provided ten millions, and 
I agreed to put in four millions. 

The banks, as everybody knows, are required 
by law to keep as reserve twenty-five per cent, of 
their deposits. This is in order to take care of their 
depositors. When their cash on hand is over and 
above this twenty-five per cent, margin, bankers 
loan money free and easy. As soon as their cash 
begins to creep down to the twenty-five per cent, 
limit — which can almost be called the dead line — 
bankers begin to get the cold shivers; they tighten 
their rates, and if the need is urgent enough, call 
in their outstanding loans. Knowing this we made 
our plans accordingly. We would put all of our 
cash into the form of deposits in the banks. Against 
these deposits we would write checks and get the 
banks to certify them. The banks would have to 
tie up enough funds to take care of these certifications. 
With the certified checks as collateral we would 
borrow greenbacks — and then withdraw them 
suddenly from circulation. 

When our arrangements were complete, we went 
onto the stock market and sold shares heavily short. 
People thought we were fools, because of all the 
signs pointing to a big revival of trade. Soon these 
contracts of ours matured. We held a council. 
We decided that the time had come to explode our 
bomb. So all of a sudden we called upon the banks 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 329 

for our greenbacks. I remember well the scared 
look that came over the face of one banker when I 
made the demand. At first he didn't understand. 

"Oh, yes," said he, after I had made my request; 
"you wish to withdraw your deposits from our bank ^ 
Of course, we can accomodate you. We shall take 
measures to get your account straightened up in 
the next few days." 

"The next few days won't do," said I; "we must 
have it right away." 

"Right away!" he said. "What do you mean .?" 

" I mean," said I, " within the next fifteen minutes.'' 

He began to turn white. "Do you understand 
that a sudden demand of this kind was altogether 
unlooked for, and will occasion a great deal of need- 
less hardship .? A wait on your part of only a 
very short time would permit us to straighten out the 
whole affair without injustice to our other depositors 
and clients." 

"I'm not in business," I said, "for the benefit 
of your other depositors and clients. I've got to 
look out for number one." 

"So I perceive," he said; "and I suspect that 
you are willing to look out for that person quite 
regardless of other 'number ones' that are scattered 
somewhat thickly through human society. How- 
ever, we will probably have to do your bidding. 
I will see what help we can get from some of the 
other banks." 



330 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

As soon as he began to communicate with the 
other banks, his alarm increased. Because he found 
that their funds were being called on in the same 
way as his own (we were calling in the greenbacks 
from our chain of banks all to once). Then he got 
to work in good earnest. Because our fourteen 
milHons (through the working of that law of a 
twenty-five per cent, reserve), meant a contracting 
of the currency to four times that amount, or fifty- 
six millions in all, besides the certifications. He 
called a hasty council of the officers of the bank. 
He ordered them to make up my greenbacks into a 
bundle, for me to take out to the carriage which I 
had brought along with me for that purpose. I started 
to thank him, but he seemed too busy to notice me. 
Messengers were being sent out on the double-quick 
to all the brokers who were customers of the bank, 
notifying them they were to return their borrowings 
to the bank at once. 

As each of these brokers found his loans being 
suddenly called by the banks, he sent word in turn 
to his clients that they must put up the money 
themselves to carry their holdings of stock. Because 
the public in buying shares don't pay for them 
outright; they only pay a margin, say often per cent. 
The broker, therefore, has to put up the other ninety 
per cent., which he borrows from the banks, and 
charges his customers the interest. 

The customers immediately sent back word to 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 331 

the brokers: "We haven't anywheres near the 
cash to pay for our stocks outright. Borrow from 
the banks, even though you have to pay ten per 
cent, interest." 

" But we can't get money at ten per cent./' 
answered the brokers. 

"Then pay fifteen," said the customers. 

" But we can't get it at fifteen," came the answer. 
"The rates for money have gone up to 160 per 
cent. There's a terrible tightening. No one was 
looking for it. We've got to have the cash, or we 
can't carry your stocks a moment longer." 

"Then let the stocks go," came back the last 
answer; "throw them on the market, and do it 
before anybody else begins." 

You can imagine, when a thousand people begin 
to sell, what a slump takes place. The money 
market is the key to the stock market. They who 
control the money rate control also the stock rate. 
Stocks began to tumble right and left. Many 
stop-loss orders were uncovered. Prices sagged 
point after point — thirty points in all. And every 
point meant one dollar in our pockets for every share 
we were dealing in. 

People everywhere began to curse us. The air 
round about us three men was fire and sulphur. 
Men couldn't get money to carry on their business. 
Merchant princes, who had inherited the business 
from their fathers through several generations, lost 



332 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

it now in a night. This was the time of the year 
when ordinarily money would flow out to the South 
and West to pay the farmers for the crops which 
they had been working all spring and summer to 
bring to harvest. But now that money couldn't 
flow, and so these farmers in a dozen states also 
began to hurl their curses at us. Many of them had 
been counting on the money from their crops to 
pay off* mortgages. Some were driven from their 
homes, and their houses sold. 

In fact, the curses got so loud after a while that I 
kind of got scared. I hadn't thought the thing 
would kick up such a rumpus. It almost looked as 
though our lives weren't safe. They might burn 
down my house over my head, or stab me on a 
street corner. So I got out of the thing. My shirt 
fits close, but my skin fits closer. I told Gould 
and Fisk that I wasn't going to be with them in this 
lock-up deal any longer — my life was too precious. 
If they chose to be dare-devils and stand out against 
a whole country rising up in wrath against them, 
they could do it. But for my part I was going to 
make my peace with my fellow men. So I released 
the money I was hoarding, and was glad to be out 
of the thing at last. 



XXXIII 

EVEN though I drew out of this lock-up 
deal, I got a good share of the blame. 
In fact, people seemed to curse me 
more than they did Gould and Fisk; because they 
said these other two were younger — were pupils 
of mine. And that I was chargeable for getting 
them into these plundersome habits, as they called 
it. If I had ever cared much for the speech of 
people, I suppose Vd have taken the thing to heart. 

But I never cared what people were saying, so 
long as they didn't do anything but talk. Talking 
doesn't hurt. You can pass it by. This locking- 
up of greenbacks had netted us so fine a penny 
that we could afford to stand a lot of abuse. Besides, 
the people whose money we had got were not able 
to get back at us. We were protected from law- 
suits by means of our standing in with Tweed and 
his crowd. We were also able, because of this 
political influence, to show the people who were 
all the time reviling us that we were pretty power- 
ful in New York City and were not to be abused. 

There, for instance, was that man Bowles, who 
owned a sheet up in Springfield. He had been 

333 



334 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

picking at me and my Erie crowd for a long time 
back. A lot of the newspapers, anyhow, were now 
beginning to snarl and snap at us: — "Erie Rascal- 
ities," "National Infamy,'' "Railroad Burglary," 
"Drew at the Head of a Piratical Horde of Plun- 
derers" — what not! One of them, a Bill Bryant, 
editor of the New York Post, got what he deserved. 
Tweed's Judge, Barnard, right from the judge's 
bench, called him, "the most notorious liar in the 
United States." And now this other fellow, Bowles, 
was also to be taken down a peg or two. For Bowles 
had come out with a pitchfork article against us, 
and against Jimmy in particular. This time he 
went too far, and we hit back. Jimmy was the 
last one of us, anyhow, whom they ought to have 
hit. Because he stood in with Tweed and his crowd 
even more than Gould or I. 

So one day soon after, this man Bowles was down 
in New York City, attending a meeting of the New 
England Society at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. He 
was standing in the hotel office. There he was 
approached by Jack McGowan, the deputy sheriff, 
and another. One of them passed on beyond 
Bowles, then turned, seized him by the arms, and 
began to shove him towards the street door, whilst 
the other held a paper in his face, a warrant for his 
arrest. Once in the street, they pushed him into 
a carriage which was in waiting, and drove rapidly 
to the Ludlov/ Street Jail. This was eight o'clock 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 335 

at night. Bail was fixed at fifty thousand dollars. 
Bowles had so many friends that he could probably 
have raised it. But all the details had been arranged 
so thoroughly that now the sheriff's office was closed 
for the night; and so bail couldn't be received. 
Bowles asked a friend to carry the news of his arrest 
to his wife, who was in poor health at the Albemarle 
Hotel, and asked for writing materials to make 
out the note; but this was held back for a time. 
Because the idea was to punish him once for all, 
by some hours in solitary confinement. By ten 
o'clock the news of his arrest had got out and there 
was a lot of his friends gathered at the jail, such as 
Mr. Dana, Mr. Bond and General Arthur. But the 
jailer said he couldn't let any one see the prisoner. 
They looked up the sheriff and found him at a party 
which was being given at the house of Mr. Brown, 
on Fifth Avenue, to celebrate a Tammany victory. 
The sheriff excused himself for a minute, and getting 
out of sight, didn't come back. Bowles's friends 
went over to the sheriff's house, but they couldn't 
get anybody out of bed. So the prisoner had to 
spend the night behind the bars. Of course, in 
the morning his friends who had been up all night, 
such as Mr. Dunn, Cyrus W. Field, and the others, 
got the bail bond, and by eleven o'clock he was free. 
But he had gone through an experience which must 
have taught a lesson to the pen-and-ink fellows far 
and wide. 



336 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

Fisk was a fellow who carried out his plans when 
he once made up his mind to a thing — didn't mind 
the expense. He used to drive in the park with his 
lady-loves, behind six horses — three white ones 
on one side and three black ones on the other. He 
liked to make a splurge. He had a boat, the Ply- 
mouth Rocky that used to run down to Sandy Hook. 
Jimmy put canary birds all through the passenger 
cabins. One day Vanderbilt was going down on the 
boat and took Jimmy to task for it. 

"Fisk,'' said he, "that is all very nice, 'those birds 
that are warbHng so beautifully. But they have to 
be fed, every last bird in those cages." 

But Jimmy was a fellow who didn't count the 
cost of bird-seed, or of anything else for that matter. 
When the Plymouth Rock was finally turned into an 
excursion boat, he would parade the decks dressed 
in an Admiral's uniform. He liked to swell around 
in his fine clothes and get the women to gaze at him. 

The way he carried on with Josie Mansfield and 
those other bad women was a caution. I think it 
hurt our Wall Street business. Because it drove 
away from us some people who might have gone 
in with us on our deals. But it didn't do any good 
to scold Jimmy, he was that set in his way. 

I tried it. I had a talk with him once or twice 
about his soul. Because in our class meeting over 
in my Fourth Avenue Church, soul-saving used to 
be a subject we brought up a good deal. Wednesday 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 337 

was class-meeting night in our church. I didn't 
feel right when I missed a meeting. I never was 
a regular leader. I didn't feel I could give the 
time to looking after the spiritual welfare of each 
and every member of the class, as a leader should. 
But I was often called upon to lead the meeting, 
when the regular leader was away. And at these 
times I used to direct the thought of the meeting 
into lines of practical religious work, such as soul- 
saving and the like. Of course, in our prayer and 
class meetings we didn't limit our testimonies 
and prayers to this one line; because religion has to 
do with personal growth in grace as well as to the 
practical work of carrying the gospel to others. 
More than once, when I've had to lead the class- 
meeting, the subject has turned to the subject of 
the Pentecostal blessing. I have in mind one night 
in particular. A good soul in the meeting who had 
once experienced holiness — she had come out as 
a Perfectionist — was now beneath a cloud because 
she had lost her sense of sanctification. As leader 
of the meeting, I asked her if she had also lost her 
sense of justification. She said, no; it was the second 
step which she had fallen back from. Then as leader 
I tried to get her to trust justifying grace and the 
smitten rock, as a fountain now of entire sanctifica- 
tion. Because, if we have the witness of our adoption 
and a faith that shows our sins forgiven, then the 
all-quickening word assures us of the further step 



;^SS THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

into sanctity and into perfect liberty from the power 
of bondage. Before the meeting came to an end 
that night, the victory had been won — she was 
once more firmly on the rock. But the practical 
side of the gospel messages is not to be overlooked; 
and I thereupon took occasion, when she had got 
back onto the mountain summit, to turn her thoughts 
to the blessedness of working for the Master and of 
going forth into the vineyard and gathering precious 
sheaves. 

This started me also. I thought of those around 
me in business life, who were as yet unreached 
— who had never yet experienced regeneration and 
the cleansing gift. Then and there I made a vow, 
with the cloud of witnesses looking down upon me 
from the battlements of bliss, that if grace should 
be given me for the task, I would try to save at 
least one soul in the year that was then before me. 
One day, accordingly, when I thought the oppor- 
tunity was favourable, because Fisk and I were 
alone in the office, I turned the talk to more 
serious things. Without seeming to make it refer 
to him, I told of cases I had known, where unbeliev- 
ing men had been mightily wrought upon — born 
again as it were in the twinkling of an eye, and given 
power over the World, the Flesh and the Devil. 
Because, "Whilst the lamp holds out to burn, the 
vilest sinner may return." 

Jimmy listened. Fisk could be serious now and 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 339 

then, even though people who didn't know him used 
to suppose he was nothing but a boaster and a maker 
of jokes. 

"No, Uncle,'' said he, when I finished; "there 
isn't any hope for Jim Fisk." (He used to call 
himself "Jim Jubilee, Junior!" That was when 
he was in one of his joking moods. But he didn't 
do it now.) "I'm a gone goose. No need of a 
fellow bulldozing himself. Might as well look the 
thing in the face. I am too fond of this world. 
If I've got to choose between the other world and this, 
I take this. Some people are born to be good, 
other people are born to be bad. I was born to be 
bad. As to the World, the Flesh and the Devil, 
I'm on good terms with all three. If God Almighty 
is going to damn us men because we love the women, 
then let him go ahead and do it. I'm having a 
good time now, and if I have got to pay for it here- 
after, why, I suppose it's no more than fair shakes; 
and I'll take what's coming to me. As to the vain 
pomp and glory of the world, I have covetous desires 
of the same. So there you are." 

I tried to tell him that he was not yet beyond re- 
demption. He was despairing of himself more than 
was any use of. He was still on the mercy side of the 
Judgment, and cases had been known where an 
eleventh-hour repentance was efficacious. If he 
sought prayerfully, he would be given grace to 
mortify those corrupt affections. 



340 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

He answered that he didn't want them mortified. 
He said that, though I might be one of those who 
were born to be saved — for theological mysteries 
were something he didn't know very much about — 
he was sure that he himself was born to be damned. 
And that it wasn't any use for him to try to be any- 
thing else. 

For a spell after my talk with him, I don't know 
but what Jimmy was a little more sober than usual 
in his walk and conversation. But it didn't last 
long. A morning or two later, down he comes to 
the office in his great barouche, driven by a Negro 
coachman; and there on the seat beside him was 
that Josie Mansfield. She was decorated all over 
with the rich stuflFs he had bought her. For, when 
buying things for women, money spilled out of 
Fisk like corn out of a broken sack. In fact, Jimmy 
was almost as proud of her fine dresses as he was of 
his own clothes. 

"Before she met me," he used to brag, "Josie 
didn't have anything but a black-and-white silk 
gown to her name. And now look at her: I pay 
the bills for her to go down to Long Branch and drive 
along the Avenue. Oh, I tell you. Uncle, when 
Jimmy Fisk starts out to do a thing, he does it up 
brown!" 

It got so after a while that he was spending almost 
as much time with Josie and her set as he was with 
us in the office. Why, he set her up in a house on 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 341 

West Twenty-third Street, and used almost to live 
there. It was the same side of the street as his 
own house, and only a few doors beyond. He used 
to say that he himself didn't know which place to 
call home. Besides her and Nellie Peris and Bella 
Lane and the rest of them, he got to bringing over 
ballet dancers from Paris. (He bought an Opera 
House over on the corner of Eighth Avenue and 
Twenty-third Street, where he gave French Opera. 
He used to sit in a box, or behind the scenes, as 
Manager-in-chief.) And he made them into his 
concubines. He didn't have any more shame in it 
all than a cow does over a bastard calf. 

I didn't give up with that one effort to show him 
the error of his ways. And when I think of the end 
those light women brought him to, I'm glad that I 
at least discharged my duty. I tried to tell him 
that those women were after him only for his money; 
that they were nothing but men-traps, and that 
these petticoat affairs of his would get him into 
trouble. I might as well have talked to the wind. 

" Kissing is all right, Jimmy," I used to say to him, 
"in the calf time of a fellow's life. But when 
you're grown up, what you want is not those ladies 
of pleasure, but a good pillow mate. The right kind 
of women are not seen around opera houses and 
such places. Women," said I, "are like poultry; 
they shouldn't gad too far from the front gate." 

But you couldn't argue with him. "I'm the 



342 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

gander can take care of those geese/' he used to say. 
"I travel on my shape, Uncle; and I don't make 
any bones of saying that I like these scarlet women 
— they're approachable. Some parts of your Bible 
suit me to a T. I worship in the Synagogue of the 
Libertines." 

He wore his hair in fancy ways — "kiss curls," 
he used to call them — and had the idea that he was 
the buck to take a lady's fancy. The way he went 
on was something scandalous. I tried my best: 
"They that yield themselves unto sin are the ser- 
vants of sin," said L "Sin should not have domin- 
ion over you, Jimmy. Because you are not under 
law but under grace." It didn't do a speck of good. 
He might be serious whilst I was talking. But let 
one of those French light-heels come tripping along 
he'd up and after her in a jiffy- 
He even boasted that it was for the sake of helping 
our business that he romped with those loose women 
the way he did. Such outlandish things as he used 
to think up! For instance, there was that deal 
with the new Knoxville Railroad, then starting up 
out West. Fisk said: 

"Uncle, there's nothing like knowing how to do 
things. Just see what a fine combination we've 
got — our clique here — you, me. Jay, and the 
rest of our crowd. Because here, through our 
partnership with Big Bill" (he meant Bill Tweed), 
"we've got New York City under our thumb; we 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 343 

could even send a man to Abraham's bosom, if it 
suited our purpose, without risk of the hangman. 
And now through me weVe got the power that 
comes through women! One hair of a woman. 
Uncle, will draw more than a pair of bay steers. 
Why, just now, though you fellows didn't know it, 
Tm getting a line on that Knoxville deal that's like 
to turn us a fine penny." 

"How's that.?" I asked. 

*'Why," said he, "you know that connection of 
theirs with the soft-coal district, which has been in 
the air some time. If that goes through, it would 
be the right thing to load up with some of the shares 
of that road." 

"Well," said I, "is it going through .?" 

"There you are," he replied; "that's just where 
I'm getting in my fine work. Because there's a 
young chap in town, a nephew, or something or 
other, of one of the big men in that road. He knows 
what's what in that railroad, and whether this line 
into the soft-coal district is going through. It's up 
to us to corkscrew the news out of him." 

"How can we do it.?" I asked. "Money.?" 

"No, that would be inartistic. It's women that's 
the bait for the average man. Leave it to me, 
Uncle, leave it to me." 

Some days later, in one of our councils together, 
Fisk came in, spry and merry. He told us he had 
got the news at last. 



344 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

"News of what?" we asked. 

"Why, news of that soft-coal connection with the 
Ohio River. It's going through," said he. 

"Are you sure.?" I asked. "How did you get 
it.?" 

"Oh, through my Josie." 

"Josie .?" I said; "who's that .?" 

"Why, my Twenty-third Street charmer. Not 
that she herself could handle a lad like this Horace ■ — 
I guess his name was Horace; something like that, 
anyhow. Because, from what I gather, he was 
quite a shy lad — one of your * mother's boys.' 
Josie is too plump to take the fancy of that kind. 
He needs the slender and artful lass, if he's going 
to be roped in. So she got Nellie to undertake the 
job. Nellie is the girl for an artistic piece of work. 
She's playful enough — after the ice is broken — 
and can give a fellow a lumptious time. First 
along, though, she has a bashful way about her 
that just takes with a certain type of man. And 
I guess this Horace was that type. Put Nellie in 
one of her neggledeegee gowns and the lights low all 
through the house, she could win over St. Anthony 
himself. She has a way about her of backing off 
at the start, that's very fetching. But once started. 
Uncle, she has got the prettiest way of saying, ' My 
nose itches' when she wants more kisseSj, of any girl I 
think I ever met. And I've met a lot. On Twenty- 
third Street they belong to the tribe of Amorites. And 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 345 

this dear young Horace, after the acquaintance was 
once made, didn't find any difficulty, Til warrant, in 
making progress swiftly. In fact, Nellie herself 
helped the acquaintance along. She got him to stay 
at the house all night, on some pretext or other. 
Before the night was over he told her everything she 
wanted to know. The railroad into the soft-coal 
region is going through. He plumped the news right 
out at her. I don't blame him. I'd have told too. 
A nice pair of dumplings " 

"Now see here, Jimmy," said I, breaking in on 
him; "if that railway connection is sure, it's time 
we laid in a line of the stock. A thing of that sort 
has a way of getting out, if you wait too long." 

And it did. The point on that particular stock, 
which he had such pains to worm out of that young 
man, Horace, really didn't help us much. As I 
remember now, after taking out the brokers' com- 
missions and so on, I don't believe any of us made 
a cent on the deal. The trouble was, another stallion 
had been whinnering around Fisk's mare, so to 
speak. That Josie of his was getting another lover, 
and wanted to let this other in also on the good 
things. As Jimmy said to Ned Stokes (he was the 
one), "two trains can't run in opposite directions 
on the same track." So when Josie gave away the 
same secrets to Ned which she gave to Jimmy and 
our crowd, it didn't do any of us any good. Because 
the advantage of inside information in Wall Street 



346 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

dickers is, that you and your clique are the only 
ones that know it. 

"We're hooked by a cow," said I, when it was 
seen that this deal in stocks wasn't going to turn out 
well. "What did I tell you, Jimmy? They that 
are in the flesh cannot please God. For to be car- 
nally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded 
is life and peace." 



XXXIV 

IITTLE disappointments, such as the one 
I have just wrote about, always come 
in the Kfe of a speckilator. In a big 
harvest there are always some weeds. And I had 
learned by this time to bear up when the market 
turned against me. The very night, when we found 
that our railroad speckilation in the soft-coal field 
was going against us, I was walking in my sitting 
room at home, my hands behind my back, humming 
out loud that comforting hymn: 

"From every stormy wind that blows" — 
Danck spoke up — I mean my grandson, Dan 
Chamberlain. I used to call him Danck, for 
short. 

"Pop,'* said he, "why in the world are you ever- 
lastingly singing that, *From every stormy wind 
that blows'.?" 

"Because it's true, Danck," said I, "It's 
true: 

"There, there on eagle wings we soar, 
And sense and sin molest no more, 
And heaven comes down our souls to greet. 
And Glory crowns the mercy seat." 

347 



348 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

I was happy, anyhow, these days. Because I 
was about to celebrate my golden wedding. I and 
my wife, just two years before, had been out to 
Drewville, two miles this side of Carmel, to the 
golden wedding of my brother Tom and his wife, 
on their farm. I said then, if the Lord would spare 
me and my wife to see the day, we too would cele- 
brate, when the time came. Our lives were spared. 
The fine big house on Union Square was just the 
place to hold a big celebration in. And on a Friday 
night in March, the next year, I think it was, after 
the founding of my theological seminary, the great 
event came off. 

I was sorry that it fell on a Friday. I think it 
brought some bad luck with it. For instance, some 
of my neighbours who lived in the aristocratic section 
around Union Square and Fifth Avenue — Robert 
Goelet lived across Seventeenth Street from me, on 
the upper corner — didn't come. They sent notes 
of regret. This may not have been altogether on 
account of Friday's luck, either. Some of the news- 
papers about this time were beginning to pitch into 
me. They were shameless in the things they said. 
There was the Nation, for instance. Just as I 
was beginning to make preparations for my 
golden wedding, and was straining the traces to 
make it a social success, that paper came down 
on me like a thousand of brick. Speaking of 
the operations of me and my ring in Wall Street, it 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 349 

said, soon after our campaign of locking up 
greenbacks: 

These men in the course of these operations 
had ruined hundreds of men in and out of Wall 
Street, had arrested the whole business of the country 
for nearly two weeks, had brought the banks to the 
verge of suspension, and seriously threatened the 
national credit. Foremost among them is said to 
have been a wealthy gentleman of advanced years, 
of eminent piety, a builder of churches, a former 
treasurer of the Erie Company, and a fit colleague 
of the speculative Executive Committee. It is 
possible that the perpetrators of these outrages cannot 
be reached through our criminal courts; it is possible 
that the financial community will continue to allow 
itself to be dragooned and plundered by these organ- 
ized robber-gangs; but it cannot be that respectable 
men will countenance such deeds by social recog- 
nition of the doers. It makes but little difference 
whether the fortunes thus acquired are spent in 
building of churches and endowment of theological 
seminaries — all good men should unite in treating 
the owners as infamous. 

But though some of my neighbours around Union 
Square didn't come out the way I had hoped, still 
my golden wedding was a success. The reporters 
came. My house was big and on the corner of 
the street. More than that, I was a big man 
down in the financial district. So their write-ups 
of the affair the next day — some of them — were 



350 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

fine. I was particularly pleased at the nice way 
my New York Advocate described the affair. And 
it didn't have to stretch the truth, either. The 
golden wedding was celebrated at our residence in 
the presence of a brilliant assemblage. The very 
rare event was vv^elcomed with the most hearty con- 
gratulations, costly presents were showered in from 
dear and intimate friends, and throughout the 
splendid festivities I and my wife, the aged and 
respectable couple whose conjugal days have been 
so happily bound in one for half a century, were 
the recipients of the most affectionate compliments. 
Not only were the drawing rooms of the mansion 
brilliantly illuminated, but also, suspended from the 
ceiling, were beautiful wreaths attached to the globes, 
the flowers indicating by letters thereon, that I 
and Mrs. Drew were married in the year 1820, and 
the attendance that night comprised many of the 
relatives of the honourable lady and myself, whom 
all assembled to honour. The toilets of the ladies 
were exceedingly handsome. The reception com- 
menced shortly before ten o'clock. I and Mrs. 
Drew, the latter attired in lavender silk covered 
with white point lace, and both looking very hale 
and pleasant, warmly received our friends, who 
were profuse in their earnest congratulations. Rev- 
erend Dr. Ridgeway, of our St. Paul's Church on 
Fourth Avenue, on behalf of his congregation, 
presented in a feeling address a very appropriate 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 351 

gift in the shape of a gorgeous basket of flowers, 
of sohd silver and gold, emblematic of the intrinsic 
and solid worth of the recipients, wrought with 
beautiful forms and adorned with exquisite tracery, 
symbols of those natures visited by grace, and 
wrapped with the flowers and fruits of domestic 
and religious fidelity. On the bowl were the words: 
"GOLDEN WEDDING" encircled with Hnden 
leaves, emblems of constancy, the gift being adorned 
with suitable monograms. The Reverend Mr. 
Foss said prayer, which being concluded, I and 
Mrs. Drew mingled with our numerous guests and 
proceeded to partake of an elegant repast. Alto- 
gether, the event was one to be remembered with 
pleasure. 

But it wasn't over yet. When the speech-making 
was through with, I told the people to go out into 
the dining room. "I hope you're as hungry as a 
meat-axe — every one of you," said I. "I want you 
to put inside all the pork and potatoes you can carry 
away." I called it " pork and potatoes," just to 
surprise them, when they should get into the room 
and see the spread of eatables I had provided for 
the occasion. For it wasn't any of your "big boast 
and small roast" with me that night. The meats 
were all of the finest — none of your bull-beef on 
my table. And I, as host of the party, spurred up 
their appetites. For I was in such light spirits on 
that occasion, I didn't care how much they ate. 



352 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

"I don't want anybody to be under my roof this 
night," said I, "who can't play a good knife and 
fork at meals. So set to," I added, in a cheery 
voice. " Get your nose in the manger, there. Brother 
So-and-so; let me see how much oats you can get 
outside of." I have always had a knack of getting 
people in a good humour. 

I felt glad that the thing was going off so fine. 
Just the day before, my friend. Brother McClintock, 
had died. I had been afraid that this might cast 
a gloom over the affair. But I kept the people in 
good spirits by shaking hands and mixing up with 
them. And everybody said, when the hour came to 
go home, that they had had just a grand time. 

The thing cost like sixty. But it was worth the 
money. Besides, I was by this time in a position 
where I could stand a big expense now and then 
without sweating. Why, during my Erie days, 
there was one item of profit alone, from the Buffalo, 
Bradford & Pittsburg Railroad deal, which amounted 
to a fine penny. We picked up that little branch 
line for a song, and then, as the Executive Committee 
of the Erie Railroad, rented it to the Erie at a sum 
which brought us in a hundred and forty thousand 
dollars a year clean profit. For another, there was 
my deal with the Lake Erie line of steamers. As 
head and front of Erie — I was not only its Treas- 
surer then, but also its Managing Director — I 
made the Erie road hire that steamboat line from 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 353 

me. And the profits from that deal were six hundred 
thousand dollars. 

I tell these things in order to show that I was one 
of the really big men in the financial community. 
I could foot the bill for one wedding celebration or 
for a hundred of them, and hardly know that I had 
spent the money. 




XXXV 

Y THIS time the boys down on the Street 
had got to supposing that I was more 
or less of a back number. 

"Uncle Daniel," they said, "is a toothless old 
dog. He will growl, but his bite doesn't amount 
to much any more. From now on he's no good 
except to poke around the Street, his hands behind 
his back, and look wise." 

But I showed them that I wasn't dead and done 
for just yet. There was still some fire in my brains. 
I had more tricks and dodges to show them. As 
Marsden, for one, found out. Billy Marsden had 
been one of my agents in Erie speckilations. He 
had made a nice sum of money for himself out of 
those deals. But I didn't intend that he should 
keep it. He had made that money by hanging onto 
my coat tails, so to speak. From which it really 
belonged to me more than it did to him. So I set 
about to get it. I got Marsden to head a buying 
movement in Erie. I went in with him in the deal. 
We bought well-nigh every share that was loose in 
the New York market. Then, whilst Marsden was 
still buying, I, all unbeknownst to him, began to 

354 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 355 

unload my holdings at the nice figure the stock 
was then reaching. Marsden took my offerings 
of stock, until I had saddled so much of it onto him 
that his money began to give out. Then he got 
suspicious. He began to accuse me of playing fast 
and loose with him. 

"Drew," said he, "some one is doing me dirt. 
You and I are now the only holders of loose stock in 
the market; and still it's being offered to me in large 
blocks. You snake-in-the-grass, Fll lay that it's you." 

I tried to tell him that it wasn't; that he was 
barking up the wrong tree. The stock was probably 
coming from distant sources of supply that we hadn't 
reckoned on. If he would only keep on buying 
for a few days longer, it would probably all be 
absorbed and the floating supply exhausted. But 
he became more and more suspicious. 

Finally one day he arranged a meeting with me 
in my office at an early hour. He said it might be 
a meeting that would last some little time, and that 
therefore we must be free from interruptions. I 
suspected he was going to try some scheme on me. 
So I thought up a trick that would meet him half- 
way. I told him to come; I'd be glad to see him, 
and would be with him as long as he wished. 

On the day appointed, he came early to my Broad 
Street office. We went into my private office. He 
turned and locked the door. I asked him why he 
locked the door. 



356 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

" I'll tell you why," said he, and he began to stamp 
like a horse that's got pin-worms; "I'm going to 
find out whether you have been playing me square 
or not. And I'm taking this means to find out. 
Just before coming over here, I issued orders to my 
brokers to go onto the floor of the Exchange and offer 
to buy Erie. Now I'm going to keep you here 
behind lock and key for a while, to see if the market 
is still supplied with Erie when you're out of it. 
You don't stir out of this room until my brokers 
have had a chance to see." 

I made believe to be hurt by his unkind suspicions. 
I said I didn't want to leave the room, or issue any 
selling orders to my brokers; because I wasn't 
doing any selling. But it hurt me to think that 
my old friend and partner had lost faith in me. 

"Drew," said he, "you lie faster than a horse 
can trot. It isn't going to do you any good to be 
soft-soapy. That door isn't going to be unlocked 
till I ferret this thing out." 

I spoke back. He answered me. Soon we got 
all het up in an argument. I made believe to send 
home my remarks by pounding on the table. For 
I had suspected Marsden's scheme; and so, before 
he came, I had told one of my clerks to place himself 
just outside the door of my private ofHce, and every 
time he heard me pound on the table, he should 
send word to my brokers on the floor of the Exchange 
to sell a thousand shares of Erie. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 357 

Marsden didn't suspect my scheme in the least. 
He was scampering around the room, nimble as a 
new-gelt pig. Every time I'd answer him good and 
hot, and pound with my hand on the desk, he got 
all the hotter, and spoke back. He kept the thing 
going. I was willing. It gave his brokers time to 
take all the Erie ofF my hands. Every once in a 
while I'd make believe to get all het up again, and 
hit the desk. This lasted well into the day. 

By and by Marsden looked at his watch. *'Well, 
it's pretty near closing time on the Stock Exchange; 
so I'm willing now to let you out of the room. I 
want to hear from my brokers, and see if they have 
had any offerings of Erie." 

I told him he was welcome to go and find out, 
so far as I was concerned. I was glad I'd had the 
chance to prove my innocence. ''You suspected 
me unjustly, you young spunkie," said I. "And 
now you'll find out. You'll see that it's been some- 
body else who has been unloading that stock onto 
you. Leastwise, you'll now see that it hasn't been 
me." Marsden went away. 

The deal nearly broke him. In fact, my scheme 
was a little too successful. During that red hot 
argument, I had loaded his brokers with such blocks 
of the stock that when Marsden finally got back 
to the scene, it crippled him up. He couldn't take 
care of the purchases which his brokers had made. 
And when it came to settle the thing, I had to let 



358 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

Marsden off with only part payment of his obHga- 
tions to me. And in doing so I had to let the cat 
out of the bag. But I had a good chuckle over the 
success of my joke. I always did enjoy a joke, 
anyhow. 

Speaking of jokes, I think one of the best funs 
I ever had was when I got the best of some of the 
church brethren. A number of them had got to 
coming to my house and talking Wall Street talk. 
They knew I was one of the inside operators, and 
that points from me were worth their weight in gold. 
(Everybody is kin to a rich man.) Even some of 
the professors out in my theological seminary in 
New Jersey were getting the Wall Street fever. On 
their visits at my house, whilst the talk of a winter's 
evening would be on matters of faith and doctrine, 
the subject in some way or other would get switched 
off to modern life and to the doings of Wall Street. 
First along, I was tender about having my business 
affairs brought into our conversation. But I soon 
saw that they were willing, if they had the chance, 
to try a flier or two in the Street. 

So one time when a lot of them were coming 
pretty often, and seeing that I was starting out just 
then on a Bearing-down campaign, I allowed my 
talks with them to turn sort of gradual-like to present- 
day affairs, and to Wall Street. Then I'd say, in 
sort of an off-hand way, "I'm willing to tell one of 
the secrets of the Street if you'll keep it dark. An 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 359 

upward movement is just now being engineered. 
Of course, only those who are on the inside know it. 
The outside pubhc thinks that the market is going 
the other way. Those who are on the inside take 
advantage of this ignorance. People who buy now 
will be in on the killing, when the butchering time 
arrives. Brother so-and-so, I have given you this 
little tip, because you and I have known each other 
so long. But don't tell anybody else!" Then a 
day or two later, when another one of the brethren 
would be visiting me, Fd say to him the same thing. 
And I was a good midwife at the business, being 
by nature patient and cool. 

In this way there set in a good-sized buying move- 
ment in those particular stocks that I was selling 
short — Wabash, Quicksilver Mining Stock, and 
shares in the Canton Land Company of Baltimore. 
Because, when you give a fellow an inside tip on 
the market, and inform him that he's not to tell 
another soul, he's going to let at least three or four 
others in on the secret. Those three or four others 
tell their friends, also. And the thing spreads like 
a fire in the woods. 

Well, a short horse is soon curried. When I 
had got the thing fixed up, I went and dumped onto 
the market some jags of stock big enough to break 
the price a few points. That was enough to start 
the fall. Because these brethren were not very 
plentifully stored with this world's goods. Their 



360 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

margins were soon exhausted. They were sold out. 
I covered my shorts at a nice low figure. 

I think it was one of these fellows from my theo- 
logical seminary that was meant in a little skit 
that appeared in the public prints about this time. 
I give it here because it shows that a person should 
not go into Wall Street dickerings unless he first 
knows the ins and outs: 

He was a long, lank countryman, 
And he stoppeth one or two: 
"Fm not acquaint in these yeere parts, 
And Tm a-looking fur Daniel Drew. 

"Fm a stranger in the vineyard. 
And my callin' I pursoo 
At the Institoot at Madison 
That was built by Daniel Drew. 

"Fm a stranger in the vineyard, 
An' my 'arthly v/ants are few; 
But I want some points on them yer sheares. 
An' Fm a-lookin' fur Daniel Drew." 

Again I saw that labourer. 
Corner of Wall and New; 
He was looking for a ferry-boat, 
And not for Daniel Drew. 

Upon his back he bore a sack. 
Inscribed "Preferred Q. U."; 
Some Canton script was in his grip, 
A little Wabash too. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 361 

At the ferry gate I saw him late, 
With his white hat askew, 
Paying his fare with a registered share 
Of that "Preferred Q. U." 

And these words came back from the Hackensack: 
" Ef yew want ter gamble a few. 
Jest git in yer paw at a game of draw. 
But don't take a hand with Drew." 

It beats all, how easy people get the Wall Street 
fever. If folks will dance they must pay the fiddler, 
that's all. 



XXXVI 

I WAS so busy these days, the Sabbath was 
well-nigh my only time of rest. Week-days 
were work days. Sometimes I even worked 
nights. After the Exchange closed on Broad Street, 
I used to go up to the Fifth Avenue Hotel, where 
a dealer had opened a kind of evening exchange in 
the basement below the office. Admission was 
fifty cents. Shares were bought and sold there from 
seven o'clock to nine. When Sunday came, there- 
fore, I often got out of the city for a day in the coun- 
try. But I made it a habit to go to church, even 
when I was away from the city. I remembered 
that in my early life my backslidings had come about 
when I had forgotten to go to meeting, and was 
breaking the Lord's Day. Sabbath desecration has 
been my besetting sin all through life, anyhow. 
Time and time again I have had to ask to be forgiven 
for it. So I now tried, like every watchful Chris- 
tian should, to remember my weakness and to guard 
against it. 

It was on one of those outings in the country, I 
remember, that I heard a sermon which made con- 
siderable of an impression on me. It was along 

362 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 363 

a line that I had never heard before. The title of 
the sermon was: "Taking God into Partnership 
with You in Your Business." As soon as the 
preacher announced his subject, I pricked up my 
ears. It was new. Since then — and Fm sorry 
to say it — many of the sermons I've Hstened to 
have had a good deal of this new and strange doc- 
trine in them — "A heaven here below," "A better 
world here and now," all that sort of stuff. I am 
missing more and more the good, old-time hallelujah 
message. The preachers seem to be preaching 
nowadays as though religion had to do with the 
things of this world, whereas, in the good old days, 
this very sin of worldliness was what we were warned 
against. I don't know but what my seminary for 
the training of preachers, founded with my own 
money, is taking to some of these new-fangled ideas. 

Well, as I started to say, this sermon was about 
"Taking God into Partnership with You." It was 
a brand-new thought to me. I was struck with it. 
As I walked home that day from the church to the 
hotel where I was stopping, I talked about the ser- 
mon with a friend who was with me. 

"Do you think," said I, "that there is anything 
in what the preacher told us this morning." 

"Why, yes," said he; "I think there's a great deal 
in it. I think the Lord would like to be a companion 
in our business Hfe as well as in our home and church 
life." 



364 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

"And do you think he would really bless a man 
who took him into partnership with him ?" I asked. 
Because I wanted to be sure of my ground before I 
took any step in the matter. 

"Yes/' said he; "I think that the man who fol- 
lowed the teachings of that sermon would be 
blessed in the long run." 

That made up my mind. I went to my room in 
the hotel, and then and there decided that I would 
give the message of that Sunday morning a try. 
Not that I have ever been a man to jump at con- 
clusions. But the sermon of the morning had come 
to me just at a time when I was calculating in my 
mind whether or not to go into a certain Wall Street 
speckilation. 

As I have wrote somewheres in these papers, when 
I went in with Gould and Fisk in the movement to 
lock up greenbacks, I saw that they were working for 
a decline in prices. I fell out with them. But they 
had gone on with their plan. And I had been won- 
dering whether it wouldn't be a good plan, since 
they were working on the short side of the market, 
for me also to put out a line of shorts. By being 
independent, I might clean up even more money 
than if I had stood in with them; because then I'd 
have had to divide my profits by three, whilst now 
I could pocket all my profits. I was turning the 
thing over in my mind one way and the other, without 
being able to come to a decision. And now, suddenly. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 365 

that sermon had come into my life. It seemed 
providential. I took it to be a leading of the spirit. 
So that night in my room in the hotel, I got right 
down on my marrow-bones — it's knee work that 
brings the blessing, every time — and told the Lord 
that I was going to try the thing, and see if he really 
wanted to be taken into partnership in my business. 
I prayed good and long — in fact, I prayed right out 
loud, so earnest was I in the deal I was making then 
and there with the Lord. If he went in with me as 
a partner, and helped in the work, I saw, from all 
my experience in partnerships, that I'd have to divide 
up some of the profits with him. So I told him that 
if he'd prosper me in this stock-market move that I 
was now about to venture into, I'd pay up in cash the 
promises I had made toward the benevolences that 
my name had been attached to. Because, although 
I had told the trustees of Drew Theological Semi- 
nary, when they named the school after me, that I 
would give them a quarter of a million dollars as an 
endowment, I had kind of hated to pay over so big a 
sum of money. For the reason that that amount put 
up as margins in stock-market speckilations, prom- 
ised to earn large profits. Even though I was now 
a rich man, I hated to take that amount of money 
out of my business. A full cup must be carried 
steadily. So, instead of paying over to them the 
money outright, I wrote my check each year for the 
interest on the endowment. Of course, that was 



366 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

just as good to the school, because all they wanted was 
the yearly income, anyhow. But the Trustees were 
after me to pay over the full amount, in order, as they 
said, to make the thing sure. And they kept remind- 
ing me, also, that I had said I was going to swell the 
endowment to half a million. So, there on my 
bended knees in that room, I made a covenant with 
the Lord. I would take him into partnership with 
me in this business dicker that I was about to go into; 
and, if he prospered me, I vowed that I'd pay over 
in full — and without going back on it this time — 
all the gifts I had thus far made in the form of agree- 
ments to pay. 

When the Sunday was over, I came back to the 
city with a glad heart. I went down to Wall Street 
the next morning feeling a young man once more. 
Without waiting for anything or anybody, I went 
onto the market and began my operations. I had 
learned in my associations with Gould and Fisk that 
Erie was the stock they were planning to centre their 
Bear operations on. Besides, I knew of a large 
issue of Erie stock — 23 millions — which they 
had secretly put through about three months before. 
So I gave orders to my brokers to sell that stock 
heavily short. 

I didn't find any difficulty in getting my offers 
taken. In fact, these offers of mine were snatched 
up so quick on the floor of the Exchange that if I'd 
been a little more cautious I might have suspected 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 367 

something. Because, and I found it out later, it 
was no other than Gould and Fisk themselves who 
had turned tail and instead of Bears had suddenly 
become Bulls. They had changed their tactics 
without giving me notice. 

Our lock-up of greenbacks, with purpose to tighten 
the money market and produce a fall in securities, 
had been so successful that great pressure had been 
brought to bear on the Secretary of the Treasury 
at Washington to put back into circulation some of 
the currency that had been called in by him in pre- 
paration for our country's resumption of specie 
payments. First along Secretary McCulloch hadn't 
listened to these appeals. He thought they were 
cries of some stock-market speckilators who had got 
themselves in a tight hole. But when the leading 
business men of the country began to urge it, he 
finally yielded and had reissued some four millions 
of money. Fisk and Gould, seeing that the author- 
ties in Washington had begun to turn against them 
and were now siding in with the business interests 
of the country, had taken it as a warning. They 
suddenly turned from their Bear campaign, and now 
were Bulls. 

Unluckily, I didn't know of this. I was an out- 
sider now. To speckilate as an outsider, is like try- 
ing to drive black pigs in the dark. So I kept on 
selling Erie short just when Gould and Fisk had 
turned and were buying Erie for a rise. I learned 



368 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

later that they had made this sudden turn in their 
tactics partly in order to squeeze me. Because they 
had been all-fired mad when I deserted them in the 
campaign of locking up greenbacks. Jimmy at 
the time had called me " 'Fraid Cat," "Danny 
Cold -Feet," "Turn-Tail," and such-hke. But I 
hadn't cared. I was determined to look out for 
number one, no matter what names he called me. 

The long and the short of it is, by and by my con- 
tracts to deliver seventy thousand shares of Erie 
matured; and I wasn't able. Gould and Fisk had 
bought up the entire floating supply of Erie, and 
now I couldn't buy it for love or money. Erie shot 
up suddenly from 35 to 47, a rise of 12 per cent, 
almost in an hour. 

This was on a Saturday. A week from that time 
a steamer would be in from England bringing a 
large consignment of Erie stock which English 
investors were shipping over. But that would be too 
late — my contracts would mature by the follow- 
ing Wednesday. I was in a bad fix. The other boys 
who had been caught along with me in this corner 
held a meeting. I was there. It was voted to go to 
the courts and get an injunction restraining the cor- 
nerers from demanding the stock. 

I was glad I had been present at this meeting. It 
put information into my hands which I might be 
able to make use of. So the next morning, although 
it was on a Sunday, I went to Fisk at his office in the 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 369 

Grand Opera House building. It was a beautiful 
building. If I'd had time, most like I'd have 
stopped to admire all the costly fixings that Jimmy 
had put into it. After he'd bought this Opera 
House, he rented some of its space to the Erie Rail- 
road for its offices. He had his own office there 
also. Opposite the main entrance was an ante- 
room for his visitors to wait in. Behind the door 
opening from there was a screen of red curtain. 
There, behind that screen, Jimmy sat at a big black 
walnut desk. The doors of the offices were of black 
walnut, and over each was a silver-plate sign to tell 
the department. Even the ceilings were painted 
with all kinds of fancy pictures. Fisk had springs 
all round his desk, for sending signals to every part 
of the building. Under the same roof he gave his 
French operas; and he was manager of this also. 
By pushing one spring, French ballet dancers would 
be ushered into his private office. Another signal 
would bring a messenger boy. Another would bring 
the heads of the Erie Railroad. Another would 
bring the managers of his steamboat lines. He 
also had a room where he could give banquets. 
Jimmy there was a kind of Solomon in all his glory. 
For under that roof he had power and money, and 
all that money could buy. He called himself 
"Prince Erie." 

But I wasn't in any mood to stop and think of 
those things then. I was in too much grief of mind. 



370 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

So I walked into his office and went straight to the 
gist of the matter. I told Fisk I was in a fix. Those 
deliveries of Erie stock that I had contracted to 
make — unluckily I was unable to meet them. 
I asked him to help me out by not pressing me for 
the stock just on the tick of the minute, but to give 
me a few more days. 

He replied in what I thought was a very unfeeling 
manner. He said that he wasn't running a benev- 
olent institution; this Wall Street business, as he 
understood it, wasn't a distribution of Christmas 
candy or a Charitable Relief Society. If I was 
squeezed I must make the best of it. 

"Look happy. Uncle," he added; "look happy. 
Of course, we shall be under the necessity of taking 
nearly all of your earthly possessions. But there 
are other things in life besides money. Grin and 
bear it. In fact, I understand you have been 
'Bearing' it!" And he roared with laughter at his 
joke. He leaned his big, blonde bulk back in his 
chair — Fisk was by this time as fat as a butcher's 
dog — and seemed to enjoy the thing immensely. 

But I wouldn't give up. A rich person is like 
a man up a tree, liable to come down so much faster 
than he went up. I was afraid of becoming a poor 
man once more. So now I pressed my case home to 
Fisk every way I knew. I said that to let me off 
didn't mean that he'd have to let the rest of the Bears 
off who were 'also caught in this corner. In fact, 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 371 

he would make so much out of them that he could 
afford to be easy on me. My case, I tried to show 
him, was different from the others. He and I had 
been friends together a long time. Surely it wouldn't 
do to let any unpleasantness come between us now. 
He had all the money he wanted, anyhow; and it 
would be Christianity in him to let me off. I 
reminded him how the Bible says that we ought 
to be tenderly affectioned one to another. But he 
didn't soften. 

"Call Gould in," said I. "I know Jay will have 
some heart, even if you haven't." First along Jimmy 
wouldn't do it. By and by he consented. He went 
into another room while Jay came in. I told him 
pretty much the same thing that I had told Jimmy. 
I didn't get any satisfaction. 

Finally they said they were tired of discussing 
the thing at that time; if I wanted to, I could come 
around again that night at ten o'clock. So I left. 
I was there at ten o'clock that night, good and 
prompt. But I didn't get in to see them as soon as 
I had expected. They seemed to have a press of 
business on hand. Though they had told me to 
come at ten, it was eleven o'clock before I finally 
was admitted from the anteroom into the office 
where they were. I started right in. 

"See here, boys," said L "Tm not asking you 
to lose any money yourselves. All I want is for 
you to give that printing press another turn. Print 



372 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

a few more convertible bonds. They won't cost 
you any money; the Erie Railroad can easily afford 
it. You have the power to issue more bonds if you 
want to. If you are caught at it, I will buy the bonds 
from you in cash. Or, I'll buy the bonds of you 
with the understanding that I am not to pay for 
them unless they catch you at it." 

But Jimmy all of a sudden seemed to become 
full of prickles in his conscience. 

"Why, Uncle," he replied, and he pretended to 
be very serious and solemn, " as a high officer of the 
Erie Railroad Corporation I am sworn to honour, 
guard and defend her interests. Far be it from me, 
even at the sacred call of friendship, to prove recreant 
to my solemn obligation. They who pass to the 
harming and despoiling of the Erie Railroad," 
and he placed his fat hand over his heart, "must 
pass first over my dead body." 

Jay grinned while Jimmy was going through all 
that stuff. But I didn't. I didn't see any joke in it. 
I told them that I would pay as high as 3 per cent, 
for the loan of thirty or forty thousand shares for 
fifteen days. I said: "You can call on me, and I'll 
write my check for a plump hundred thousand 
dollars. If that isn't a reasonable profit for you, what 
is .^" But they refused to listen. 

Then I changed my tactics. I said how I hadn't 
come there merely as a beggar; that I had it in my 
power to do a favour to them as well as to ask one. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 373 

"What's that?" they asked. 

"Well," said I, "I was at a meeting of our Bear 
crowd yesterday. They are going to do something 
which it would be mightily to the interest of you two 
fellows to know. I'm willing to turn state's evi- 
dence, so to speak, against them, and let you into the 
secret, if you'll agree to let me personally out of the 
corner. 

They said they wouldn't agree to anything. But it 
might soften their attitude towards me considerable, 
they said, if I showed that I remembered old times 
by doing them the favour, and tell the plans of my 
partners in the Bear party. 

I tried to get them first to promise to let me off if 
I told them. They wouldn't. I finally decided to 
tell, and trust to their honour as gentlemen to do 
me the favour in return. So I said: 

"All right, I'll show my friendliness of spirit. 
I'll let you in on the secret. Bright and early 
to-morrow morning those associates of mine are 
going to the courts and get out an injunction 
restraining you from demanding the deliveries of 
these Erie stocks." 

They made believe to "pooh-pooh" the infor- 
mation; said it wasn't worth shucks to them; that 
they didn't care what injunctions were gotten out; 
they were going ahead and demand those deliveries, 
even if all the judges in creation got in their way. 

But I could see, just the same, that it was a valu- 



374 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

able piece of news I had given them. "And now," 
said I, " I have done my part. Are you going to do 
yours : 

"Couldn't think of it," said Jay. "Drew, we've 
got you just where we want you. You'll have to 
pony up." 

"Boys," said I, "don't you drive me too far, or 
I'll fight back. I know a whole lot about you. 
You know during the whole of our other fights I 
objected to ever giving my affidavit. But I swear 
I will do you all the harm I can, if you don't help 
me in this time of my great need. So help me 
Heaven! if you don't let me out of this corner I'll 
go before the courts and make an affidavit telling all 
about our old deals, and show you up." 

"It's a hard winter," said Fisk, "when one wolf 
eats another. And you would have to give away 
on yourself, too. You were with us, hand and glove. 
In fact, you were in it before we commenced." 

"It don't make any difference," said I. "I'm 
willing to make a clean breast of the whole thing. 
I will hew to the line, let the chips fall where they 
will. For I am desperate. If you put that Erie 
stock up, I am a ruined man." 

"Dan Drew," said Jimmy, "you are the last man 
in the world to whine over any position in which you 
may find yourself in Erie." 

I didn't answer back. I didn't see any use of 
dragging out the talk. It was already one o'clock. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 375 

In fact, they themselves were plainly showing me 
that they wanted the interview brought to an end. 
I rose to my feet. I took my hat. I said just this: 
** Gentlemen, I will bid you good night." 

Jay grinned so wide it was almost a laugh — 
about as near a laugh, I guess, as that graveyard 
face of his could get. As to Jimmy, he bust out in 
a roar. I didn't take any notice. I left them and 
passed out. 

It's a sorry colt that will kick its own dam. I 
felt all the more sore at the unfeeling way in which 
Gould and Fisk were treating me in this matter, 
because I had been their foster parent, so to speak. 
When they came into Wall Street as yearlings, I 
had taken them up — had showed them how to make 
money. And now, for them to turn on me in my 
old age and strip me in this way, was an unthankful 
thing to do. It was like a mare of mine once, that 
got a stone in her foot. It was hurting her, and was 
like to lame her for life. So I got off, and started 
to help her. As I was bending over the hoof and 
trying to dig the stone out, she reached down and bit 
me in the seat. I remember it made me very sore 
towards her — this ungrateful act of hers. So in the 
present case. I felt I had never seen a more ungrate- 
ful pair of men than Jim Fisk and Jay Gould. 

But it was no time to nurse feelings. Things had 
to be done, and very quick, too. The Sabbath Day 
was already at an end. (I was very sorry that I had 



376 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

been forced to desecrate the day. As I was going 
home that night from Fisk's office, I felt myself a 
guilty and hell-deserving sinner, and have asked 
since to be forgiven for breaking that Lord's 
day.) 

After a short sleep, I got up the next morning and 
set to w^ork. I w^as in really a tighter fix than I had 
been the day before. Because, since I had given 
away on my partners in the Bear crowd, they were 
down on me. And it hadn't helped me any with 
Fisk and Gould, either. I was now between two 
fires, so to speak. I was sorry I had told those two 
men anything at all of our plans. They had pre- 
tended that they didn't care beans for the informa- 
tion. Just the same they used it. Before we could 
get out our injunction, they up and went to Judge 
Barnard before he was out of bed and got an injunc- 
tion against us. In war it's always an advantage 
to attack first. In the case of lawsuits, to get out 
an injunction first is particularly helpful; it puts 
the party that comes out next with an injunction, in 
the light of mere quibblers and obstructionists; 
and they don't have a standing with either court or 

jury- 
Now it was a case of fight it out to a finish. We 

tried to get Fisk and Gould ousted from their office, 

and the Erie Railroad placed into the hands of a 

receiver. I went before the court, as I had told 

them I would, and tried to hurt them by making 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 377 

a clean breast of some of our doings. This was 
my affidavit: 

"Gould and Fisk have recently been engaged in 
locking up money; they told me so; they wanted me 
to join them in locking up money, and I did to 
the extent of ;? 1,000,000, and refused to lock up 
any more; I had originally agreed to lock up 
^4,000,00, but when money became very tight, I 
deemed it prudent to decline to go any further, and 
unlocked my million; the object of locking up is to 
make money scarce — to make stocks fall, because 
people couldn't get the money to carry them. 

Daniel Drew." 

The next few days were about as hard as I ever 
went through. I was like a snake under a harrow — 
couldn't wriggle out, no matter which way I turned. 
When my fellow Bears learned that I had employed 
Sunday to go to the Erie crowd, they thought of 
me as a Jack-on-both-sides. They called me an 
informer. They soured on me. Then, when the 
Street saw my affidavit, they turned against me also. 
Because it was the first news they'd had that I had 
broken with my old Erie partners. Fisk and Gould 
were powerful on the market at this time. It was 
seen that I was no longer in with the ruling clique 
as I once was; so a good many of the operators were 
not willing to follow me any longer. I was mortal 
lonesome. 

As the time to make my deliveries drew nigh, I had 



378 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

to do something. I went onto the market and tried 
to buy Erie. I offered any price. It was an awful 
fix. All the other Bears were likewise trying to i 
buy. The price went up like sixty. Between 
Monday and Wednesday the price jumped from 47 
to 57. And I couldn't get it even at that figure. 
If that steamer from England would only come! 
But she couldn't possibly arrive until the thing would 
be over. By Thursday afternoon our buying had . 
forced the stock up to 62. This was at two o'clock. 1 
At a quarter to three the stock would have to be 
delivered. I thought I was a goner. ! 

Just then a strange thing happened. Queer 
figures were seen coming into Broad Street — 
tailors from uptown, boot-makers, small cigar 
dealers, and the like. Each of them had one or more 
ten-share certificates of Erie in his inside pocket, 
which he now offered for sale. The thing was soon 
explained. Some time before, an issue of Erie 
stock had been put out in ten-share certificates. \ 
Nothing but stock printed in ten-share certificates 
is sent across the ocean to London. It had been 
calculated by Fisk and Gould, therefore, that this 
particular issue had been bought by English inves- 
tors, and was safe across the water. They had taken 
account of all the rest of the supply on the market, i 
except this ten-share issue. Now we learned, and 
it was a joyful surprise, that a good number of these 
ten-share certificates had been quietly bought up at 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 379 

the time by small buyers on this side — clerks, 
barbers, shoe dealers, and so forth; and now were 
being dragged out of their hoarding places by the 
high prices we were offering. 

This help appeared none too soon. I grabbed at 
every ten-share certificate that was offered. Jimmy 
and his black-faced partner saw my move. They 
tried to head me off by themselves snatching up 
these new offers so I couldn't get them. It was an 
exciting time on the floor of the Exchange. They 
did succeed in absorbing much of what was offered. 
I worked like a house afire. Five minutes before 
closing time I got my shorts covered. But it had 
been at an awful cost. This squeeze in Erie cost me 
well-nigh a million dollars in good, hard money. 

But the loss did me some good. It taught me 
once for all not to take up with new and strange 
doctrines. Some time later I met the man who 
had been with me in that church service up in the 
country. I said to him: 

"Do you remember that new-fangled notion that 
was brought out in the sermon we heard some weeks 
ago, about taking God into partnership with you in 
your business ?" 

He said, yes, he remembered it very clear. 

"Well," said I, "there's nothing to it." 



XXXVII 

I WAS sorry at the time it happened that I 
had broken with Fisk and Gould. When 
you are in with an inside clique of operators, 
you have the pick of the basket, so to speak. Those 
on the outside take what's left. But I now see that 
even to have stayed in with my old crowd wouldn't 
have helped for very long. Because something was 
soon to happen which would have smashed up our 
ring, anyhow. 

It came on a Saturday in January. I remem- 
ber it, because the next day was Sunday. And I 
thought how awful it must be for Jimmy to be 
hurled into Eternity on that day, with no time to 
say his prayers and mind his soul. We had finished 
breakfast that morning in my house in Union Square; 
I was just about getting through with morning 
devotions. A coach drove up to the door with great 
style. There was a darkey coachman, togged out 
Hke a militiaman at General Training; the horses 
were all shiny with harness of brass and steel. You'd 
have thought it was some king paying a royal visit. 
In fact, it was "Prince Erie." Jimmy now came 
up the steps lively as a cricket, and into the house. 

380 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 381 

"Hello, Colonel," I said. He liked to be called 
colonel. By his offering jobs in the Erie Railroad 
to the officers of a militia regiment, he had got himself 
elected their colonel. 

He said: "Good morning. Uncle," and I took him 
into the front room, where we could be alone. We 
didn't refer to the late unpleasantness that had come 
between us in the matter of the Erie corner. Busi- 
ness men don't carry grudges. Every day is a new 
beginning. If you can use a man to-day, it never 
pays to remember what he may have done to you, 
or you to him, yesterday. 

He sat down in the plush chair in front of the fire- 
place. I burned cannel coal in that fireplace. How 
well I remember those little details now ! At the time, 
I hadn't any idea it would be the last I should ever 
see Jimmy alive — in fact, that it was to be his 
last day upon earth. 

"I came," said he, as soon as he got seated, "to 
talk with you about those shares of yours in the 
Bristol Line of steamboats. How would you like 
to get them off your hands and have the money ? 
Ready cash, you know, is a handy article, and often 
better than capital tied up, particularly in boats." 

I told him I was always open to an offer. I said 
that just now in particular I was in a position where 
ready cash would come in almighty good. He made 
me an offer for the stock. We dickered for a spell. 
Finally I told him I couldn't give any answer then. 



382 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

Vd turn the thing over in my mind, and would let 
him know later. 

"So long," said he. "Think it over quick." 
And he started to leave. 

"Going so soon .^" said I. "Stay and visit a spell." 

"No," said he; "Fve got a busy day ahead of me. 
That Ned Stokes is putting me to an everlasting lot 
of trouble. But Fll trounce him, yet, you see if I 
on t. 

I tried to shame him out of making such a big 
fuss over so little a thing as a love scrap. 

"But, Uncle," said he, "it isn't a little thing. 
That rat has come between me and my Josie. 
Before he came along I had things my own way over 
at her house. I was the one who set her up in that 
house. Before she knew me she didn't have a decent 
gown to her back — yes, owed money for her rent ! 
There's no end to the cash I've spent on that woman. 
And for her to turn me down for that young popin- 
jay is more than I can stand. If he was even of some 
account on the Street, I wouldn't blame her so much. 
But for her to take up with a little two-by-four like 
him — put me out of her house to give him room — 
no self-respecting man could put up with it. And 
I'll smash him for it if I have to keep at it from now 
till the cows come home. If Tweed was only back 
in popular favour as he was a little while ago, I could 
get a couple of men from his gang of * Dead Rabbits' 
to help me with the job." He went on to say how he 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 383 

had been getting even with his Josephine by buying 
her servants out of her employ as fast as she could 
hire them; and he said he had other aces up his 
sleeve w^hich he hadn't played yet. "Fll shov^ them 
a thing or two, before I get through with this thing." 

"Have a care, Jimmy," said I; "those light-heeled 
women are bad people to deal with. They're devil's 
daughters, every last one of them." 

"I guess I'm finding it out," he replied. "There 
isn't any faithfulness in a car-load of them. What 
do you think .? She's suing me now for libel. 
Just at this minute I've got to get over to the York- 
ville Court and fight it out. But, Uncle, there's 
as good fish in the sea as ever was caught. Your 
Jim Jubilee, Jr., isn't down and out just yet. I'm 
as bucksome as ever. Why, as soon as I get rid of 
that pair of rascals at the Yorkville Court to-day, 
I've got an appointment with a woman and her 
daughter down at a hotel on Broadway. Mothers 
do well not to hang onto their daughters too long. 
Dead fish and daughters are bad things to keep. 
Glasses and lasses are brittle wear. Uncle," he 
called out, as he was going through the door; "and 
the finer they are, the more brittle. By-by." That 
was the last time I ever saw Jimmy alive. Who'd 
have thought that a man as gay as that was going 
to his death t After he'd got through with the ses- 
sion of the Yorkville Police Court, Jimmy went down 
to the Grand Central Hotel on Broadway. He 



384 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

was going in at the north entrance to meet the woman 
and her daughter that he had spoken about. Just 
as he got inside the door and was going up the short 
stairs to the parlour floor, Stokes at the top met him 
and shot him with a revolver. It hit him in the 
belly. Stokes threw the revolver under a lounge 
in one of the parlours leading off from the hall, 
and tried to get away. But he was caught, and taken 
to jail. Fisk sank where he stood, and hardly spoke 
after that. He was taken into one of the parlours 
of the hotel. He died the next morning about ten 
o'clock. 

It was a sad Sunday for all of us. The thing had 
come so sudden. Jimmy was the livest one in all 
our crowd. Although I'd had some differences with 
him a little while before, still I hadn't allowed that 
to sour me against him. He was one that you 
couldn't stay mad at for any length of time. He had 
a way of making up with you, that you just couldn't 
resist. And now that he was gone, it seemed as 
though the king pin had been knocked out of our 
Wall Street clique. In fact, Jimmy himself had 
seemed to know how important he was. He used 
to slap me on the back hard enough to make my 
teeth rattle, and say: "Uncle, you and Jay couldn't 
get along without Jim Fisk, and you know it!" 

I guess the others in our old crowd seemed to feel 
the loss just the way I did. After Jimmy was dead 
Jay went down to the room in the hotel where he lay, 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 3^5 

and sat near to the body while it was lying in state. 
Bill Tweed also came in and stood a while in the 
little party at the head of the coffin. But the people, 
as they filed through to see Jimmy in his coffin, 
looked at Tweed; and soon he got up and went away. 
I can't tell how lonesome it was to all of us when the 
body was finally taken — on a special train — up 
to his old home, Brattleboro, Vt., and there put 
away in the ground. They placed a big monu- 
ment over his grave. It had figures representing 
"Commerce," "Navigation,'' "Drama," and "Rail- 
roads," on the four corners; they tried their best to 
brighten up the gloom. But it didn't work. Some- 
how, we felt that it wasn't going to be so well with 
any of us after that. And it wasn't very long before 
our fears came true. That same year Tweed was 
hounded by the papers until the Sheriff got him and 
locked him up in the County Prison on Blackwell's 
Island, and he never got out alive again — that is, to 
go free. With Tweed gone, the other prop that had 
helped us so much in our Wall Street speculations 
was taken away. Jay felt this as much as I. He has 
gone on making lots of money. But since Tweed was 
locked up and Fisk shot, Gould has become lonely 
and troubled. He says he is going to give some of his 
Erie Railroad money to the New York Presbytery, to 
be used for Home and Foreign Missions. Even Ned 
Stokes, who did the shooting, doesn't enjoy life, though 
he is out of jail at last. He sees spooks in the night. 



386 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

The papers, of course, had a whole lot to say when 
Fisk was killed and our crowd thus broken up. 
The New York Times, the morning after his death, 
came out in an editorial like this: 

We shall probably be thought very eccentric 
if we suggest a reflection which must have occurred 
to many minds yesterday — namely, that the old- 
fashioned theory (as some people call it) about guilt 
bringing with it its own punishment, receives a start- 
ling illustration in the events of the past year. There 
are not a few persons in the world who think that 
we are too much advanced in knowledge to believe 
that there is any person in the universe greater than 
that which we create ourselves, or which is tangible 
enough to be touched; and that all human circum- 
stances are the result of accident or chance. Yet 
the events of the past year might well disturb the 
conclusions of these philosophers. The men of 
whom Fisk was one seemed to be so strong that 
nothing could shake them. They had wealth and 
power unlimited; they altered laws to suit them- 
selves; leaders of society bowed down before them. 
The world had nothing more to offer them. But to 
the astonishment of all men, and as it were in a 
moment, the whirlwind descends upon them, and 
they are swept away. Their wealth is gone; their 
names are become a by-word; some of them are vaga- 
bonds on the face of the earth; others perish, in the 
bitter language of Swift, like poisoned rats in a hole. 
We say again that it is an amazing spectacle, and 
though some may continue to assert," Itisallchance," 
and to cry out, "There is no God," there are others 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 387 

who will be inclined to take a different view of it, 
and to go back to the simpler faith of earlier years — 
that somehow or other, explain it how we will, the 
sin of every man finds him out, and the divine laws 
are just in execution, whether we choose to acknowl- 
edge their existence or not. 

That editor bothered his head more than there 
was any use of, to prove that there's a God. I 
could have told him, without his trying to find it out 
in such roundabout fashion. In my own life, Fve 
experienced the guidings of Providence in a way 
too clear to be mistaken — that is, up to the time 
when bad luck set in for me. And even now, when 
it isn't so well with me as it used to be, I try to trust 
even where I can't see: 

"From every stormy wind that blows. 
From every swelling tide of woes. 
There is a calm, a sure retreat, 
'Tis found beneath the mercy seat." 

Even in these later days of my life, I have been 
snatched out of ruin sometimes by such close shaves 
that I have had to fall down onto my marrow-bones 
in thankfulness. Why, I have come home at night 
sometimes so tuckered and down in the mouth, I've 
said, the first thing on getting into the house: "We're 
ruined, Danck, we're ruined ! It's sure pop this 
tim.e!" and I have gone to bed with my boots on 
and without stopping to undress, I have been that 



388 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

down-hearted. But in the morning, on getting up, 
I'd say: 

"Go out, Danck, and get the paper. We'll look 
our fate in the face." 

And when he had brought it in, and I had looked 
over the stock quotations, I'd have to exclaim: 

"We're saved, Danck, we're saved after all! That 
fall of two points does it!" 

The way to keep your religion is not to be all the 
time arguing about God, but just believe him. I 
don't see why, just because Ned Stokes put that 
bullet into Fisk's belly, that it proves anything one 
way or the other about religion. And yet, the 
papers made it a big card against us. They came 
out like this: 

In every bad man's life there comes a moment 
when the machinery of wrong he has so laboriously 
contrived seems to be going wrong; when one after 
another of his elaborate combinations fails; w^hen the 
building of dishonesty or cunning, with all its 
apparent completeness and splendour, seems break- 
ing to pieces over his head. He sees that it is not 
man that is defeating him. It is some mysterious 
and higher Power. 

These conspirators are now rounded up. The 
vast wealth they had accumulated melted away like 
the snow of spring. Even their very names became 
a proverb for rascality. Surely the young men 
who have been dazzled and debauched by careers 
of flaunting vice and open and gigantic fraud, will 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 389 

gather some serious impressions from their tragic 
histories. They must see that there is a mysterious 
and gigantic Power ruHng the issues of human Hfe, 
and inexorably punishing the infractions of his laws, 
and not for a moment forgetting the smallest wrong: 
that Power we call God. 

Which shows that the more educated you are, the 
harder it sometimes is to have religious faith. 

The London Times was also in high spirits when 
our Erie crowd was broken up by Jimmy's death 
and by Bill Tweed's imprisonment. It was so 
bitter in its hatred of me and my whole clique that it 
said our bust-up now was a cause for rejoicing on 
both sides the water, and that we had been a bad 
thing for the country: 

For a long time the British shareholders of the 
Erie Railroad have been making efforts to obtain that 
justice which we are accustomed to think would 
not be refused by the most turbulent Spanish Repub- 
lic or the most effete Oriental despotism. In the 
Empire State and its splendid capital they laboured 
in vain. They were told by friendly advisers that 
their agents might as well go home again. 

The revolution has come, and the Erie ring has 
been broken up. This incident has almost a national 
importance, for there can be no doubt that the auda- 
cious practices of the Erie Directors injured the 
credit of all American securities. It is difficult for 
foreigners clearly to distinguish between what is 
sound and unsound in a country so new and chang- 



390 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

ing as the United States, and cautious people might 
well argue that if other companies were not so profli- 
gate as the Erie Company, there was nothing in 
the nature of American institutions to prevent them 
from becoming so. Indeed, the pictures drawn by 
New Yorkers of their Legislature, their Judiciary, 
and the mercantile doctrines and practices of their 
citizens, were enough to sober the most sanguine 
speculator. Whatever the truth of these assertions, 
they could hardly be contradicted so long as one of 
the chief enterprises of the country, involving mil- 
lions of money, was notoriously under the manage- 
ment of a set of swindlers, befriended by a suspected 
legislature and a more than suspected judiciary. 

That British sheet seemed to have the idea that I 
and my crowd should have served in Wall Street for 
the good of the country! That would be a pretty 
way to get along in a stock-market deal! If a fellow 
in a stock-market dicker stopped to think first how 
it was going to aflTect the country at large, he would 
have his hands so tied he wouldn't be able to move. 
The trouble with editors is, they see only the down- 
town side of a man's life. They don't see the home 
and religious side of him. It would be a great deal 
better if newspapers would pay attention to that 
part of a man's life that is open and above the sur- 
face. Straight trees can have crooked roots. 



XXXVIII 

THOUGH far beyond the Scripture limits 
by this time, and lonesome because of 
Jimmy's death, I was still able to find 
my way around in Wall Street smart and handy — 
as Jay Gould himself had to allow. For it was about 
this time that I gave him and Hen Smith that squeeze 
in Erie which they won't forget for some time. 

I saw, by my reading of the tape and from the 
reports that came to me around the Street, that Jay 
and Henry were selling Erie for future delivery. 
I calculated that they were overdoing the thing. 
Because at this time, out of the seven hundred and 
eighty thousand shares of the capital stock of the 
road, fully seven hundred thousand shares were 
held abroad. So, with the help of a German banker, 
I got control of the floating supply of the stock here 
in the New York market. Then I waited. 

Soon the time to make their deliveries came around. 
The short operators, Smith and Gould among the rest, 
were unable to get the stock. Then I set about. 
I had a good holt on them. I loaned them the 
stock. But it was at a rate which milked them fine 
as anything. 

391 



392 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

"Fve known those two boys," said I to my broker, 
"a good long time. I guess we won't charge them 
3 per cent, a day. We will just make it one and a half. 
They will give down freer then, and, more than that, 
they will feel better.'' 

It wasn't pity in me so much as good business 
policy, to set the rate at one and a half instead of 
three. Because those two men. Jay and Hen, were 
so powerful, that if I'd squeezed them too tight, 
they might have gone into litigation and made it 
hard for me to collect anything. Even as it was, 
a cent and a half a day means a rate of 600 per cent, 
a year; and that's a decent enough profit for any- 
body. And they had to pay it. I had those fellows 
by the scrooch of the neck. The way they squiggled 
to get loose made me chuckle all over. (I always 
did have a knack, anyhow, of seeing the fun of the 
thing.) And just now they were squirmy enough. 
But I held on tight. In fact, I made them squiggle 
still more; for I wasn't through with this deal yet. 
After I'd got the stock all loaned out, I waited until 
the moment was ripe. Then, going down to the 
Street one morning, I issued orders to my brokers: 
"Call in now all of that stock that has been loaned 
out. 

I knew that so unlooked-for a move would make 
a big howl in the Street. And, in order not to be 
pestered by the yells and cries of the operators 
when they suddenly found themselves caught, I 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 393 

drove away up town, and stayed there all day. So, 
when the traders on the Exchange came to my office 
that day to beg for an extension of their loans, I 
wasn't there. " Mr. Drew's gone away for the day," 
was the only thing the clerks could say. 

A hungry horse makes a clean manger. I finished 
this deal up good and thorough. Some of the 
traders were sold out by order of the Stock Exchange 
Board. Prices caught as pretty a tumble as any- 
one could ask for. And I took a slice out of the boys 
that day which I guess they remember yet. 

This was 'long about the end of September, soon 
after I had come back from my summer's rest in the 
country. About a month after, Gould came around 
to my office one day. He chatted for a while, and 
then said he'd stump me to go in with him and singe 
the Street by a Bulling movement in Erie. I ought 
to have been on my guard; because it was so soon 
after I had caught Gould in the corner I have just 
wrote about. And to hold that fellow for any length 
of time, was like trying to ride a cat in a wheel- 
barrow, he was that squiggly. But Jay had a per- 
suasive way with him. You never could tell from 
his face what he was thinking about inside. And 
now he put on such a friendly tone of voice that it 
made me think he was kindly affectioned towards me. 

"We'll rocket that Erie stock," said he, "higher 
than Gilderoy's kite. Anyway, Dan, you and I 
ought to be together in our Wall Street doings. 



394 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

Let's forget some of the late unpleasantnesses — we're 
about even, now, I reckon — and start over again." 

I was sort of tickled at the idea of getting back into 
partnership with him. Gould had a way of making 
a success of the things he went into. I knew him for 
a good mouser, one that never misses. So I said 
I'd go in with him. We agreed to buy Erie stock 
and hold it for a rise. 

The thing went along for a while, smooth as a pan 
of milk. The price of the stock got up to 56. That 
was high-water mark compared with what Erie 
had been selling for a little while before. With 
that level reached, a lot of shares came dumping 
onto the market. In order to keep the price up, I 
had to take them. I didn't know at the time that it 
was Gould who was unloading on me. I trusted 
the man. I took all the shares that were offered, 
and locked them up in my safe. 

It was about this time that Gould came over 
to my office and paid me another visit. He said 
that the market in Erie, from what he had noticed 
in reading the tape, seemed to be softening most 
unexpectedly. (Jay had so innocent a way of say- 
ing it, that I now believed he was as much worried 
as I over the sag in Erie.) 

"Tell you, Dan, what I suspect," said he. "Most 
like as not the Street has got onto our Erie move and 
has begun to fight us. We must throw them off 
the scent. What do you say to going in on a side 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 395 

play In 'Northwestern' for a while, as a kind of 
bhnd for our Erie movements ?" 

The idea sort of took hold of me. I knew that 
Jay was getting rich hand over fist, and so felt I 
could trust his judgment. Besides, he put up some 
good arguments. He showed how the price of North- 
western stock was 'way above what it ought to be. 

"You remember, Dan," said he, "how not very 
long ago that farmer out in Wisconsin gave a thou- 
sand shares of * Northwestern ' stock for a shanghai 
rooster; and now it's selling clean up at 75. It's 
a ridiculous price. We can go in, sell the market 
short at that figure, and play for at least a ten-point 
drop in the next three weeks." 

I said I guessed it was safe to go short of "North- 
western"; and that it might tickle the boys to speck- 
ilate for a spell in something new. So I sent word 
to my brokers and they put out a line of shorts in 
"Nor' west" to the extent of twenty thousand shares. 

I ought then to have watched that "Nor' west" 
deal more closely than I did. Because, as I found 
out afterwards, at the very time that Gould was 
getting me to go short of it, he was engineering a 
pool to Bull that same identical stock. For a report 
was around that Vanderbilt was after the road in 
order to get a western connection through to Chicago, 
and Jay was giving out to that Bull clique of his that 
it was, therefore, a good time to operate for a rise. 
I didn't know these facts. I was so busy watching 



396 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

our campaign in Erie, and trying to support the 
market there, that I didn't pay hardly any attention 
to "Nor Vest." Until one day — it was Friday, I 
might have known something was going to go wrong 
— as I was watching the ticker, "Nor' west" jumped 
up from S^ to 95 in a single hour. Then it bounded up 
to par, dropped back to 90, and finally went to 105. 

Even then I didn't realize how tight the corner 
was. I ought to have covered my shorts without 
a moment's delay — cut short your losses and let 
your profits run, is the rule. But I stood to lose so 
much at the 105 figure, that I decided to wait and 
hope for lower levels. So I kept up a good show 
of spirits. That Saturday afternoon some one said 
to me, in a teasing way: "Uncle, Northwestern is 
rising." 

"Rising.?" I replied. "Why, it's riz!" 

But though I made believe I wasn't scared, I was 
as uneasy as a toad on a hot shovel. 

Hen Smith was also a Bear with me in this North- 
western movement. He was short even more shares 
than I. He knew of some doings in the Erie Rail- 
road Company in the last few months that would 
look bad for Gould if they came out. So he went to 
the president of the Erie Railroad and got him to 
obtain a warrant for Gould's arrest. We calculated 
that if Gould could be put behind the bars, it would 
take from the Street the man who was supporting 
the ^^Northwestern" market, and so cause it to drop. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 397 

We got Gould into the hands of the Sheriff. But he 
secured bail; and was madder than ever when he 
got back into the Street. 

Well, to cut it off short, we were cornered. The 
price was ballooned to 230. The rest of our Bear 
party were let off at from 150 to 160. Hen Smith 
and I were the only ones who couldn't arrange a com- 
promise. I went over to Gould's office several times 
to get him to let me off. He was very polite. We 
got along fine so long as our talk was about former 
days and the pleasant times we had used to have 
together. But the moment I switched the talk 
around, sort of gradual like, to those Northwestern 
shares that I'd agreed to deliver, he got as cold as 
charity. 

"No use. Drew," he said finally — this was 
Saturday — "I was caught once, and I paid up man- 
fashion. Now you've got to pay up. I've learned 
some lessons from you in financiering, and have 
taken them well to heart. The entire difference 
between the stock at its present level and the level 
at which you made your contracts, must be paid in 
cash, and good solid cash at that. Don't come again 
unless you bring the money with you." 

I thought of two or three ways to get out of the hole. 
One was to get out an injunction. But the Stock 
Exchange had made a ruling that any one inter- 
fering with an officer of the Exchange in the dis- 
charge of his duty, such as enforcing deliveries when 



398 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

they fell due, and such like, would be put out. Then 
I thought of repudiating the contracts my brokers 
had made in my name. I figured that my brokers 
were more able to carry these losses than I was in 
my present condition. But the trouble here was, 
I myself was financially interested in the very firm 
of brokers that had done the work. For when I 
came back into the Street, after my war with Van- 
derbilt and my few months of retirement, I had 
become a special partner in the brokerage house 
of Kenyon, Cox & Co., by paying three hundred 
thousand dollars into the business. So, if I fell 
down on them now, I would really be falling down 
on myself. 

The Saturday came to an end without any result. 
The next day, Sunday, was a hard one. At the price 
at which the stock then stood, I would lose over two 
million dollars; and I could see no way out. It was 
a long, dark day. When the Exchange opened 
Monday morning, I tried Gould again, but without 
any success. I made up my mind I'd have to stand 
a loss, and set about to make it as small as possible. 
I borrowed a part of the twenty thousand shares I 
was short. I also got hold of some convertible 
bonds which could be turned into stock. In this 
way I made a settlement. It was at about 125. 
The difference between $S;^ and ;?I25, was the 
amount of my loss on every share! And there were 
twenty thousand of those shares! My loss was over 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 399 

three-quarters of a million dollars. The price of 
the stock then sank to 75. But this didn't do me 
any good. I had been chiselled out of my good 
money. It didn't make any difference to me then 
if the stock sank to nothing. 

You don't get much sympathy in Wall Street when 
you stub your toe. All I could hear was snickers, 
wherever I went. About this time, also, the news- 
papers let loose on me again. One of them came 
out like this: 

We cannot affect to have any sympathy with 
these men, and least of all with Drew. He has 
been one of the curses of the market for years past. 
If he has now received such a blow as will result in 
his being driven from the Street altogether, no one 
will be sorry for him. 

Daniel Drew does not care a fig what people 
think about him, or what the newspapers say. He 
holds the honest people of the world to be a pack of 
fools, and you might as well try to scratch the back 
of a rhinoceros with a pin as to scratch his mind — 
if he has one — by preaching about morals. When 
he has been unusually lucky in his trade of fleecing 
other men, he settles accounts with his conscience 
by subscribing towards a new chapel or attending 
a prayer meeting — as a sharper he is undeniably 
a success. 

.The mud-thrower who wrote that said one true 
thing, that Fm not fidgety as to what people think of 



400 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

me. It was the loss of the money that hurt. Gould 
was the person I felt sore against. When he was 
getting me to go into that "Northwestern" dicker, he 
was nice as anything. That's the way with a 
treacherous man — to come up to me holding a 
knife behind his back, smile in my face till he got 
close up, and then dig me in the guts! 

Gould and his crowd tried to give out that Van- 
derbilt was in with them in the "Northwestern" 
deal. But the Commodore came out with a plump 
"Taint so": 

The recent corner in Northwestern has caused 
some considerable excitement in Wall Street, and 
has called forth much comment from the press. My 
name has been associated with others, in connec- 
tion with the speculations, and gross injustice has 
been done me thereby. I beg leave, therefore, to say, 
once for all, that I have not had, either directly 
or indirectly, the slightest connection with or inter- 
est in the matter. I have had but one business 
transaction with Mr. Gould in my life. In July, 
1868, I sold him a lot of stock, for which he paid me, 
and the privilege of a call for a further lot, w^hich 
he also settled. Since then I have had nothing to 
do with him in any way whatever; nor do I mean 
ever to have, except it be to defend myself. I have, 
besides, always advised all my friends to have noth- 
ing to do with him in any business transaction. I 
came to this conclusion after taking particular notice 
of his countenance. 

C. Vanderbilt. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 401 

So many people got to tittering at me because 
of this "Northwestern" affair, that by and by it 
made me sore. Rub a scalded horse on the gall, and 
he'll wince, no matter how tough a set of nerves he's 
got. My cronies in the Street poked fun at me 
over this squeeze! — they laughed as though they'd 
split. I didn't see anything so all-fired amusing in it. 
To be sliced out of the earnings of half a lifetime, 
and by so beneathen a trick that I've hated to put 
it dow^n in these papers — let such a trick have been 
played on them, and I guess they'd have winced, too. 

But I got back at them. One day, soon after, 
I walked hastily into the Union Club, on Fifth Ave- 
nue. Most of the people there knew me. I had 
hurried, and now was considerable het up. So, 
when I got inside the door where they all were, I 
pulled out my handkerchief and mopped my face 
and neck. In doing so, I flicked a paper out of my 
pocket, making believe that it was by accident. 
It fluttered to the floor. I passed on without 
seeming to notice it. After looking around a min- 
ute or two, as though trying to find somebody, I went 
back into the Street. Of course, after I got out the 
people in there picked up the paper, and there they 
saw what looked to be an order from me to my 
broker: 



*''Buy all of the Oshkosh you can, at any price 
you can get. D. Drew." 



402 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

They gathered at once that a Bull movement in 
*^Oshkosh" stock was under way. As always happens 
in such cases, they told their friends. A buying 
movement started in. When they started to buy 
I started to sell. I unloaded on them at a good 
figure a lot of **Oshkosh" that I was holding at that 
time, and that I had feared I wouldn't be able 
to get rid of. They didn't laugh at me after. that. 
They saw now how it feels to be parted from good 
money. 



XXXIX 

A REPORTER came to me one afternoon in 
my office, which was now in Whitely and 
Neilson's, at Exchange Place. He said 
the Erie Railroad was going to sue me for the seven 
million dollars I carried with me when I scooted 
from Vanderbilt to "Fort" Taylor in Jersey City. 
The news scared me. 

"Sue me.?" I said. "What can the Company 
sue me for .? Why, I haven't been in that concern 
for four years! I finished up there as treasurer, 
and squared up all the accounts before I left. I 
don't see why they want to sue me." 

"Mr. Drew, they are about to sue you for one 
hundred thousand shares of stock which you issued, 
they claim, illegitimately." 

"Well, now!" I answered. "I don't see what they 
want to do it for. I credited the Company with 
the proceeds of the sales, and unless it had the 
money at the time it would have bust; for the fact is, 
the road was just dead broke. It's queer that they 
should pitch upon me." 

I made believe that I wasn't bothered by the news. 
Just the same, it worried me considerable. Law- 

403 



404 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

suits are expensive things, no matter which way 
they turn out; and then, too, even after the cost of 
the suit, I might lose in the end. 

This suit by the Erie Company alone would not 
have been so bad. But my own flesh and blood 
now began to get at me. When my son-in-law died, 
he had made me one of the trustees of the property 
which he left to his children. I had contrived after 
a spell to become the sole trustee of this property. 
But now my grandchildren were getting into a com- 
plaining state of mind. They said I hadn't invested 
the money, as the terms of the deed of trust required. 
They didn't stop to think that by using the money 
in my Wall Street speculations, I stood the chance 
of making a lot more than just the scrawny 6 per 
cent, you get when you put money away in a per- 
manent investment. I tried to explain this to them, 
but they wouldn't listen. They began lawsuits 
against me in the open courts. By and by the 
Supreme Court dismissed me from my position as 
trustee of my own grandchildren's property, and 
put another person in my place. This got noised 
abroad in the Street, and hurt me a good deal in my 
Wall Street dickerings. People said: "His flesh 
and blood don't run any risk with Uncle Dan'l." 

On the top of my other troubles came the Panic 
of '73. Stocks slumped right and left. Dividends 
fell off* on all my investments. Now it was hard 
for me sometimes to get money for my living 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 405 

expenses. It began to look pretty scary for me. 
I was being threatened with lawsuits on every side. 
Flies come thick when a horse has a galled back. 
I didn't know but what every time my door bell 
rang at night, it was a process-server; or maybe the 
Sheriff, coming to sell me out. 

By and by, as the summer passed and autumn 
came, the worst of the panic seemed to be over. 
The big men in the business world had got under 
the market and were supporting it from further 
slump. People began to breathe easier. Then I 
saw that the time had come to get out of the fix 
I had been in. During the last few months I had 
been like a man running away from a bull; the bull 
was pressing me so close that I hadn't had time 
for anything else but to run. Now was a little 
let-up. This gave me time to look about for a per- 
manent escape. I took advantage of it. I set 
about to get my property out of my own name. 
Then if a crash came, I would have property to 
fall back on, and which my creditors couldn't get. 

Unfortunately, this move of mine leaked out. 
My creditors learned what I was trying to do. They 
started in at once to foreclose on the firm of Kenyon, 
Cox & Co., Brokers, in which I was tied up. That 
was the firm through which I had worked most of 
my stock-market deals of late. Its name was 
signed to the obligations I had incurred. My 
enemies now charged that I was planning to fall 



4o6 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

down on that firm and leave it to its fate; and that 
therefore they were not going to be caught napping. 
So they brought foreclosure proceedings against 
it, and the firm went to the wall. The brokerage 
house of Kenyon, Cox & Co. was tied up with other 
big houses in Wall Street. So when this firm fell, 
it sent other houses tumbling headlong. Thus the 
panic started in once more, and this time in good 
earnest. The country was just then like a patient 
trying to recover from a hard fever, and now had 
suffered a relapse. Doctors say that a relapse is 
worse than the first sickness, because the constitu- 
tion doesn't have the strength that it had at first. 
Anyhow, that seemed to be the case with the country. 
The men of means who had got under the market 
before and had been supporting it, got discouraged 
when this second crash came, and gave up trying. 
House after house tumbled. Each tumble left the 
houses next to it weaker. Soon a panic set in which 
spread all over the country. 

As the panic increased, I felt as though I had 
kicked over a bee-hive. The way curses came buzz- 
ing around my ears now was a caution. They laid 
the whole thing at my door — said that thousands 
of merchants and farmers and people generally who 
were being ruined in this Panic of '73, and the poor 
people who suffered so in the winter that followed, 
would lay their woes to me for all time to come. 
Because I, at a critical time in the country's first 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 407 

recovery, had given that recovery a set-back and so 
started the fever raging worse than before. 

But they said those things through ignorance. 
They didn't reaHze the position I had been in, that's 
all. When my neighbour's house is a-burning, I 
haven't time to help him — I'm looking to my own 
roof. When I started in on that scheme to get 
my property out of my own name, and so brought 
about the failure of Kenyon, Cox & Co., and those 
other failures that followed, I was in a tight fix. 
A broken ship has to get to land somehow. People 
said: "Dan Drew is willing to burn a house down, 
in order to roast a few eggs." They didn't stop to 
think that when a man is starving, he'll do most 
anything for food. 

After the downfall of the brokerage house in which 
I had been general partner, I had to scratch around 
good and lively to keep from going under. I had 
put my house on Union Square out of my own name. 
Now I got it back and placed a mortgage on it. A 
mortgage on his house is a bad thing for a Wall 
Street operator, because the news leaks out and hurts 
his credit in the Street like Old Sambo. But I had 
to do it. Also, I told the trustees of Drew Theo- 
logical Seminary that I couldn't pay any longer that 
^17,500 a year interest on the endowment I'd 
promised. (I wished then that I had handed over 
the full quarter-million when I had had it.) 

By and by I saw I'd have to do something in 



4o8 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

order to get cash. My creditors were nagging me 
on every side. When a tree is fallen, every man 
goes at it with his hatchet. So, after the Panic of 
^IZ was finally over, I set to work. The market 
by this time had got settled. Money was coming into 
the Street once more, so that there seemed a chance 
to get some of it. I planned a dicker which, if suc- 
cessful, would bring me in a fine penny. I gathered 
around me a few men. I went in to sell stocks for 
a fall. I put out a large number of "Calls" in 
"Wabash.'' Of late years I had been doing quite a 
business, anyhow, in "Puts" and "Calls," because 
you can turn over your capital more quickly in that 
way than by buying and selling stocks outright. 

I figured now that if I could put out a big enough 
line of shorts, I would know how to bring about 
a slump in prices at the right time. This was 
my plan: I would sell stocks for a decline. Then 
Fd corner the gold market and thus bring to pass 
the very decline in values that I was hoping for 
— seeing that when money is high, stocks go low. 
I remembered Fisk and Gould, and "Black Friday." 
There was Belden, for instance. Billy Belden 
had made some money in that former gold speckila- 
tion by issuing those orders to Fisk which allowed 
Fisk to go ahead and make big contracts in the 
gold market in Belden's name and so escape any 
legal liability against himself when settling-up time 
should come. I calculated now that with the more 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 409 

or less tight condition of affairs that was upon the 
country as a result of the panic, I also stood a chance 
to turn a good penny by operating in stocks and in 
gold at the same time. 

In some way or other my plans didn't just carry 
out as I had calculated. I wasn't any longer an 
insider, as Yd been back in former days. So I had 
to go into my speculations unsight, unseen. In 
wading where you can't see bottom, you are very 
like to step off into a deep hole. And that is 
what I did. I found that I had issued my "Calls" 
in the face of a rising market. Do the best I could, 
I wasn't able to head off the upward movement. 
Gold was going down, prices were going up; and it 
was whip-sawing me in both directions. As the best 
thing to do under the circumstances, I started in to 
sell my holdings of gold before the rest of my crowd 
— they were in the same fix that I was in — could 
begin to do it. This helped me a little, because 
it got me out of the box I'd have found myself in if 
I had kept saddled down with gold at a time when 
our lock-up of gold was proving a failure. But 
this relief wasn't so helpful as it might seem. Because, 
when I began to release the gold which I had been 
locking up, it made money more plentiful and so 
made stocks rise still faster. Thus it got me out 
of the one hole, only to get me deeper into the other. 

By and by the holders of my "Calls" began to 
pester me for deliveries. I saw that I wasn't going to 



4IO THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

be able to meet tbem. When the day at last arrived 
I didn't feel that I wanted to go down to Wall Street 
and look that mob of angry brokers in the eye, and 
have them shake their fists in my face. So I stayed 
home, and sent word down that I was sick. But 
this didn't help matters so very much, because my 
creditors in the Street complained that if I was 
really in earnest to take care of my contracts, I would 
have appointed some broker to represent me, while 
I was away sick. 

"Lumbago" is a good disease to tell people you've 
got, when you don't want to go down to the market. 
Because it's a disease that is serious enough to keep 
you home, and yet will let you be up and around the 
house if there is anything you want to attend to. 
About noon that day, I sent a telegram down to 
Dickinson & Co., from my home, telling how I was 
too weak to come down to the Street, and asking 
them to notify Robinson, Chance & Co., my regular 
brokers, to take care of my "Calls." This tele- 
gram didn't help as much as I had hoped. In fact, 
it got me in still deeper. My brokers refused to 
take the responsibility of taking care of my "Calls" 
without a written and signed order from me, in my 
own handwriting. And the Street said I had 
employed this roundabout way of notifying my 
brokers, in order to lay down on those brokers and 
repudiate my contracts when the time should 
arrive. Furthermore, the Street now got notice 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 411 

that my clique to corner gold and depress values 
had been broken. So the price of gold now came 
tumbling headlong. 

The next day, before the opening of business, I 
had to go down to Broad Street and meet my 
contracts. The break of the gold ring brought a 
good deal of happiness to merchants, whose busi- 
ness had suffered by the tightness of money which 
my manipulations in the "Gold Room" had made. 
But it hadn't brought any happiness to me. In 
fact, the whole affair, instead of helping me as I 
had hoped it would, hurt me considerable. I tried 
to give out that I hadn't been mixed up in it. But 
some of the papers came out the next day and 
charged me with it point-blank, in spite of anything 
I could say. For instance, one of them came out 
like this: 

It appears that Daniel Drew is at the bottom 
of the present attempt to force up the price of gold. 
We should have thought that Daniel Drew might, 
at his age, have devoted what remains of his mind 
to some better purpose. Two or three weeks ago 
the rumour that he was engaged in this mischievous 
work was widely circulated and we sent a reporter 
to him to make inquiries on the subject. What he 
said on that occasion was as follows: 

"My boy, I've really no interest in this thing. 
Some folks say I'm the leader of the pool, but I 
haven't anything to do with it. I almost never have 
any gold, and at the present time don't own a dollar 



412 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

of it. It's all folly; why won't they let me alone ? 
I'm trying to run along pleasantly with everybody 
in the Street; but I can't. First the Bulls charge 
me with being a Bear, and then the Bears say I'm 
a Bull. They shouldn't. I'm only trying to make 
a few dollars in a quiet, easy way, and would like to 
do it without being bothered. Here's my brokers. 
They'll tell you I haven't anything to do with the 
thing — ask 'em — I won't keep them from telling 
the truth. They know all about me." 

There are two things which this ancient per- 
son ought to know without our telling him. One 
is that it is very wrong to tell lies; the other, that it 
is a very scandalous piece of work to deliberately 
try to paralyze the trade of the country. It appears 
from our money article this morning that the people 
who have been "in" with Daniel Drew in this 
scheme are likely to burn their fingers. We hope 
they will. At such a time as this, when the spring 
trade is opening under favourable circumstances, 
an effort to create a gold panic is about as vile an 
act as it would be to set fire to a house. The vener- 
able Daniel will come to a very bad end if he goes on 
in this way much longer. 

But I was glad to see that I had been able to get 
at least one of the papers to put some credit in that 
report of sickness which I'd sent down from my 
house. Because, after I got back to the Street, the 
New York Sun came out with this editorial: 

Uncle Daniel Drew went down into Wall Street 
yesterday morning in a coach. His face was worn 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 413 

with illness, but the traces of grief at the damage 
unintentionally done "the boys" by his sickness were 
deeper set and much more conspicuous than any 
left by a brief period of bodily suffering. Still, 
Uncle DanTs eyes sparkled with their wonted bril- 
liancy, and the moment he cast them upon the 
stock-list tape his brokers knew that he was all 
himself again. His known goodness and liberality 
gave rise to a rumour that he contemplated a scheme 
of making good the losses consequent upon the 
rumour of his illness; indeed. Uncle Dan'l looked so 
benevolent and smiled so sweetly that this rumour 
did not seem so absurd as it would have been if 
coupled with the name of any other man; still, those 
of the victims who waited for the restitution were 
disappointed. Uncle Dan'l would rather found a 
college any day than restore a cent. 

But the great bulk of the people said that my 
sickness was only an attempt to lay down on my 
brokers, and this hurt me with the very men whom 
I needed most to stand in with. It left me lonesome. 
Brokers would still take my orders, provided I paid 
my margins in advance. But they'd now get the 
shivers over the slightest bit of rumour about me, 
and sell me out quick — said they couldn't take any 
chances. I couldn't find men any longer to go in 
with me into deals. My "Wabash" dicker was going 
against me, because I was now all alone. I could 
have fought the thing to a finish, and have brought 
about a war that would have smashed railroad 



414 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

stocks as fine as anything; only I couldn't get enough 
men of means to go in partnership with me. People 
shut their doors against a setting sun. With the 
breaking up now of my gold clique I was brought 
pretty low. 

I tried to keep my financial conditions secret. 
Because, when once a heifer is sick and laying down, 
the hounds will get after her and make her all the 
sicker. As long as you hold your head up, your 
rivals are scared of you, and let you alone. The 
moment they see you sickening, they pounce on you 
like crows around a dead cow. I tried to keep it 
dark that my property was melting away. But the 
reporters got wind of it. (It's well-nigh impossible 
to keep anything from those boys nowadays.) When 
the gossip which is going on about you in the Street 
gets into the public sheets, you're in a bad case. 
That very paper which had put some credit in the 
report of my sickness, was very unfeeling when the 
gold speculation finally busted up. It said: 

Yesterday Mr. Daniel Drew, aetat. 82, kindly 
took his patriarchal hand from the throat of trade, 
gold declined in price, and general business resumed 
the indications of activity which it has recently 
given. Deacon Daniel must often have heard 
wicked works of this kind denounced on Sunday; 
perhaps he has even lifted up his voice against 
them himself. We hope he will now try to prac- 
tice what he preaches. He at least kept his business 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 415 

engagements yesterday, which was more than 
many people expected. Let him now try to turn in 
an honest penny without striking a blow at the trade 
of the whole country. 

And one of the other papers said: 

We shall hope that there is no truth in the report 
that the recent "railroad war" is likely to break out 
again. It caused quite enough damage while it 
lasted, and it is doubtful whether even the stock 
gamblers could have gained anything by it. The 
trade of the country is not in a condition just at 
present to warrant any deliberate attempt to disturb 
it. The gold clique in this city has for the present 
been broken up, and it is whispered about that the 
pious old Daniel Drew has been brought to almost 
complete ruin. Thus, one by one, the "Kings of the 
Street'' tumble down. Whose turn will it be next ? 

It was not as yet true that this " King of the Street" 
had tumbled. For I still kept on my legs. But I 
was getting more shaky all the time. The "Wabash" 
deal turned out an almighty loss, costing me a plump 
half-million. The Street plucked me feather by 
feather. Pretty soon Daniel Drew was declared a 
bankrupt. 



XL 



MY BANKRUPTCY really came about 
because of the prosperity of the country. 
During the days of the Civil War, when 
things looked dark, I could turn a fine penny. Three 
days after Fort Sumter was fired on, stocks fell 
twenty per cent. And in McClellan's campaign, 
when those right and left wings of his were about 
to surround Richmond, all to once a fine slump 
in values set in. What was the reason .? Why, 
we financiers had got advance information that 
McClellan was going to fall back, and that Abe 
was about to call for 300,000 more men. I made 
money on it. I have always felt more at home in 
depressing values than in boosting them. I guess 
I am a Bear by nature, so to speak, having always 
been sort of conservative and cautious-like in my 
make-up. During those days of my prosperity, 
my oflfice with Dr. Groesbeck & Co., at 15 
William Street, was the Bear headquarters for the 
whole Street. In these four little rooms, snug and 
cozy, most of the Bear campaigns in Wall Street 
started. In the front room were half a dozen clerks 
behind a railing, writing checks to pay for stocks, 

416 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 417 

with two or three boys as messengers. A little 
room at the side was a kind of conference room 
where we consoled the customers, and such-like. 
In the next room were most of the customers of the 
house. And in the rear room you'd have found 
me, seated on a sofa. This was the starting-place 
for most of the bearing down movements in Wall 
Street all through that period. "Grossy" (that's 
the name I used to give to Groesbeck) had gradu- 
ated from the office of Jake Little, and so was fitted 
to be my helper in Bear operations. Why, even 
out on the sidewalk in front of our place, the talk 
used to be all for a fall in prices. There was a 
Bearish atmosphere about the office which spread 
through the district. 

But after the Civil War, stocks seemed possessed 
to advance. I tried to check this movement, in the 
case of Erie stock, by telling how the prices were 
rising so that the road could hardly pay expenses 
any more. I pointed out how she now had to pay 
$20,000 for an engine that she could have bought 
before the war for ;? 10,000. But I didn't succeed 
very hefty. There were a great many people who 
now had faith in the future of the Country. Some- 
how or other I have never been able to feel at home 
in this new age. The Country isn't what it used 
to be when I was in my prime, back in the fifties. 
There's a change in the very religion, to-day. In 
my church, where I have sat year after year, and 



4i8 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

even in my Theological Seminary, there are notions 
being taught which are different from the old-time 
teachings. Preachers are now talking so ever- 
lastingly about this earth. I have done my best 
to get them to stick to the gospel and not allow 
worldliness to get into the teachings of the church. 
Still, these new and strange doctrines are spreading 
more and more. The good old preachers have gone 
to glory. I am still found in my pew on the Lord's 
day. But Fm free to say that I don't enjoy it any- 
wheres near so much as I used to. 

When I went into bankruptcy, I let everything 
go — made a thorough job of it. I thought I might 
as well go the whole hog, so to speak. The schedule 
of bankruptcy which I made out showed this. The 
following is all the property which I had in my hands 
at the time: 

Watch and Chain ;?I50 

Sealskin Coat 150 

Wearing Apparel 100 

Bible, Hymn books, etc 130 

That sealskin coat was a costly thing, which I 
wouldn't have had if I'd had to buy it myself. But 
Robinson came down from Montreal one day with 
three fur coats, one for himself, one for me, and one 
for Jimmy Fisk. I remember we had a merry time 
in the office when he made the presentations. Because 
all three of us had been, in some way or other, in 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 419 

the circus business. So we pretended, after we had 
got the fur coats on, that we were all Bears. Jimmy 
went cavorting around the room on all fours, so 
comical you'd have hurt yourself laughing. I have 
missed Jimmy a good deal since he was taken away. 
He was as lively as a louse. 

Besides the sealskin coat, there wasn't anything 
in my bankruptcy schedule, as anybody can see, 
which showed much property left in my hands. 
The hymn book was valuable to me, but it wasn't 
to anybody else. In fact, my creditors said the 
bankruptcy was so complete that they doubted its 
genuineness; and they started to have me examined 
by Commissioners, in order to get their clutches onto 
some of the railroad stock and other property which 
I had put out of my own name. This examination 
put me to a lot of inconvenience. I had never 
kept books. Drovers don't keep books, anyhow. 
The way we drovers used to do, when two or three 
of us would go into a partnership, was to put what 
money each of us had into one big wad, which one 
of the partners would hold. Any money paid 
out would be taken from the wad. Any money 
we made would be put into the wad. Then, when 
the partnership was dissolved, all we would need to 
do would be to count the money in the wad and 
divide it up even. So when the Commissioners in 
Bankruptcy got after me to show checkbooks, ledgers, 
and so on, I didn't have any to show. I had kept 



420 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

my accounts in my head. They didn't Hke that. 
They said it was only an excuse — which it wasn't. 

They pushed me so hard that by and by I had to 
do something to get rid of them. So I made out 
that I was sick. I took to my bed. Even at my 
bedside they kept pestering me with questions. 
One day I made out that I was too feeble, and the 
doctor said to them that the examination would 
have to wait over for a day, while I recovered my 
strength. That gave me the chance I was looking 
for. After they were out of the house I up and 
dressed, and took the train, without letting anybody 
know where I was going. But this didn't help 
for very long. The Commissioners found I had 
gone up to Putnam County. They followed me 
there, to Brewsters', and said that the examination 
must go on. I had to consent. They put me under 
the drag, and harrowed me both ways. But I tired 
them out. By and by they left, without having got 
hold of anything. 

I had had so much trouble in getting out of New 
York and back to my native county, that, now I 
was there, I decided to stay. After so many years 
in the city, the hills round about Brewsters' and 
Carmel looked good to me. So I settled down to 
live the rest of my life in the country. 

But after a few months, Putnam County wasn't 
so attractive. There were a number of farmers up 
there whom I'd dealt with back in my drover days. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 421 

And now they kept dunning me to pay for critters 
I had bought from them nigh onto forty years before. 
Small creditors are worse than body lice. Why, 
one day, right on the fair grounds at Carmel, old 
Ebenezer Gay came up to me and bellowed out 
before all the people: 

"Mister Drew, isn't it about time you paid me 
for that there calf.?" 

I told him I didn't know about any calf. He 
said I'd bought one from him back in my drover 
days and had never paid him. He went on to make 
such a fuss about it, saying debtors have short mem- 
ories, and such-Hke, that, to get rid of him, I up and 
paid the money. But I saw that if I was going to 
have any property left to live on, I'd have to get 
away from there. A man could be nibbled to 
death by ducks, if there were enough of them. 

Besides, I began to feel a hankering for Wall 
Street once more. After a few months, it got 
almighty dull out in Putnam County. You can't tell 
out there how the market is going, until the day 
after; then it's too late. I found that I was tied 
to the Street Hke a cat to the saucer. I felt that if 
I could get back into the financial district, I'd be 
able to make some money. I remembered how much 
I used to make there. I was like a heifer lowing 
for the green pastures. I couldn't be at ease. 

Pretty soon I moved back to New York. I put 
up at the Hoffman House. My wife had died before 



422 THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 

we left the mansion at Union Square. That man- 
sion had now been sold at auction. So I went to 
the Hoffman House, where I could be close to the 
Stock and Gold Tickers. I was talking there with 
a Mr. Knight, one evening soon after I got back. 

"You mean to say that you have come back to 
go into active operations once more.f*" he asked. 

"Yes," I answered; "the boys think Fm played 
out. But ril give them many a twist and turn yet." 

I spoke big then. But I have found it harder to 
get back into active affairs than I looked for. Who 
cares for old cattle ? Brokers now are shy of me. 
Whenever the market begins to turn against me, 
Tm up and sold out. Besides, I don't seem to get 
over a loss as easy as I used to. One day I was so 
down in the mouth at a bad turn in the market, 
that I took more than I guess I ought to. Because, 
some time after, I found myself in a room in the 
Sturtevant House, in bed. A couple of my old friends 
called on me there. They had a bottle or two brought 
up into the room, and offered to treat me. But 
I didn't want them to see me taking anything. So 
I shook my head. No. They coaxed. Then they 
looked at each other as much as to say, "It's time 
we were going." By and by they went away. But 
they left the bottle behind. I felt that this was very 
good of them. Because I felt the need just then 
of something to cheer me up, and I wasn't feeling 
rich enough to buy it myself. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL DREW 423 

It was lonesome work, living at a hotel. So I 
have got my son to move down from Brewsters', 
and hire a house on East Forty-second Street, to 
make a home for me. I have had him put a stock 
ticker in the basement of the house. This saves 
me the trouble of going down to the financial 
district every day. Because there are times now 
when I feel so feeble that I can't go out of the house. 
And yet I don't just want to give up speckilating. 
You never can tell when you are going to make the 
lucky hit. Give up, and just then you might have 
been on the eve of a turn in your luck that would 
have brought you back all the money you had lost, 
and a lot more besides. 

But the turn in my luck seems almighty slow in 
coming. To speckilate in Wall Street when you are 
no longer an insider, is like buying cows by candle- 
light. I don't know as I can keep the thing up much 
longer. The other night I had a bad spell — kind of 
an epileptic attack, the doctor called it. And he said, 
at my age it's likely to come on again at any time. 

I manage to get to church still. I take part the best 
I can in the Lord's Day services. The preaching isn't 
like what it used to be. Still, I try to keep up heart. 

From every stormy wind that blows. 
From every 

THE END 



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